The national leadership of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed insinuations that some members of the party belong to a cabal that decides what goes on there, describing it as unfounded.
This is as the main opposition party in the country described the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus as seasoned administrators who mean well for the party and would not be part of any cabal.
PDP Deputy National Chairman (South), Elder Yemi Akinwunmi who stated this when he appeared as guest on a live national television programme monitored in Port Harcourt, last Wednesday said the party does things democratically.
Akinwunmi was reacting to allegations in some quarters that Wike and Secondus were part of a cabal in the party who decides what happens in the fold.
However, the Deputy National Chairman said if the duo were the cabal how come he was the one that presided over a recent inauguration of a committee set up to investigate the circumstances that led to the emergence of Ndidu Elumelu as Minority leader of the House of Representatives.
“If there is any such allegation it is unfounded. If our leader Prince Uche Secondus and Governor Nyesom Wike are the cabals, how come I am the one that presided and inaugurated the committee?
“So the question of cabal does not exist in the PDP. It does exist in other parties not PDP. We do things democratically. We believe in ourselves. We are colleagues and we have senior colleagues and we have other colleagues.
“We respect ourselves and we do things jointly as members of the same family. There is no question of cabal in PDP. And I want to re-emphasize it here that our internal affairs is not a subject that we will come and wash our dirty linens in public.
“We do not believe in that. It is not like the All Progressives Congress (APC) where a state chapter will come and demonstrate against the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. Let me also make this clear that members of the PDP today are people of proven integrity. People that have risen along the ladder to become where they are today. It is not just ‘aluta or solidarity forever (obviously making a veiled reference to Oshiomhole). No, it is not that!
“For example, let me give you the resume of my leader, Prince Uche Secondus. He was the chairman of the PDP in Rivers State for two terms. After which he became the organizing secretary of the party at the national level.
“Thereafter he became the deputy national chairman of the party and later the acting national chairman of the party. Later he became the party’s National Chairman, a position he still occupies today. He rose through the ranks.
“This is unlike someone who was a labour leader, who recently left as Governor and then be made the National Chairman of a big party. So what is his pedigree in party administration? He has no pedigree! Even myself talking to you, I was the Secretary of the PDP in Ogun State for nine years before I became the deputy national chairman,” Akinwumi stated.
Dennis Naku
