PDP Elders Fault Obuah’s Leadership …Confront Jonathan Over Interference

There seems to be no end to the crisis bedeviling the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers state as a chieftain of the party Chief Sara Igbe who was one-time Special Adviser to Dr. Peter Odili on Security Matters has accused the Chief Felix Obuah led-PDP of recklessness and impunity in the running of the party.
Igbe spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital while reacting to the comment credited to some PDP stakeholders of Ikwerre Ethnic Nationality that there was no zoning arrangement in Rivers State PDP.
Igbe said: “Obuah is a small boy in the PDP, he does not know how the PDP came about, he was just brought in to contest council election and his experience ends there. Until the conspiracy that brought him into power is destroyed, he does not know how Rivers State is governed.”
However the Special Adviser on Media to Felix Obuah, Mr. Jerry Needam while reacting to the allegations said,” the party has expressed confidence in the leadership of the State Chairman, Bro Felix Obuah, and we have assured him of our unalloyed support and cooperation.
“PDP is for men and women of integrity, we challenge Sara Igbe to show proof of his membership of PDP and also tell the world when he visited the state party secretariat or his ward last. He is only looking for cheap popularity.”
Meanwhile there are indications that President Goodluck Jonathan and governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are at war over what sources close to the party described as “unwarranted interference in political affairs” by the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
It was gathered that most leaders of the party were not happy at the meddlesomeness of the First Lady in clear party affairs.
A highly respected PDP stalwart said President Jonathan risked protest votes from party members to save the country from further embarrassment by the First Lady.
The source who craved anonymity told our reporter, “I have spoken to many elders in the party and they said they would not vote for President Jonathan because of his wife. Even myself will not vote for PDP.
“It is not because we hate the president but we can no longer cope with the overbearing influence of his wife. So, expect among other things protest votes against Jonathan by even PDP members.”
The source added that at a recent meeting with the president, some of the governors tabled the issue of the president’s wife’s overbearing influence in political affairs.
According to the source, the governors sought to extract commitment from President Jonathan that his wife should not impose candidates on their states in 2015.
Butressing the argument, the source referred to the scenario in Rivers State where Patience Jonathan is leading a campaign to make former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike Governor.
The source added, “The party elders are watching with shame the macabre dance in Rivers State by the First Lady. Recently, the First Lady visited Nyesom Wike in his house in Port Harcourt.
“In that televised visit, she held Wike’s hand and placed it in the hand of Dr. Peter Odili. It is an endorsement and it has never happened before. That singular act is unbecoming of a First Lady. With what she is doing in Rivers, we won’t be surprised if PDP loses that state to APC”.

Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Otelemaba Dan Amachree (left), conferring with House Leader, Hon Chidi Lloyd, during the debate on Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers bill at the floor of the House, recently