‘Anti-Party Activities’: Reps members demand PDP chair’s resignation

By Marvellous Gbadegesin On Apr 8, 2024

Anti-Party , Reps members, PDP, resignation , Ikenga UgoChinyere, Umar-Damagum — PDP Chair, Umar-Damagum

Some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers in the House of Representatives have called for the resignation of the National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagum, accusing him of working for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Led by Hon Ikenga UgoChinyere, the lawmakers questioned why the party leadership has stayed silent on the political situation in Rivers State and instead watched President Bola Tinubu intervene.

The lawmakers made the demand during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.

The PDP currently holds over 100 members in the House of Representatives.

They claimed to be speaking on behalf of at least 60 lawmakers in the opposition lawmakers’ coalition in the National Assembly.

They said the local government leadership changes of the party was planned sabotage by Damagum.

According to the lawmakers, under damagum the PDP has been crumbling, losing elections and court cases.

“Not only did Damagun hold tight unto the seat for well over a year now, he has abdicated every responsibility of the office of the Chairman of PDP and is very comfortable serving APC interests,” the lawmakers stated. “There had been an agreement of a broad spectrum of the party leadership when it became clear that Damagum was not interested in conducting elections but to appoint Caretaker committees in at least 19 states where the tenures of the State and local government leaders were expiring to extend the tenures of these officials by three months.

“This decision which was made to cover every state was the wisdom that restrained Damagum from announcing a wholesale list of a majority of Caretaker Committees populated by APC agents masquerading as PDP members.

“However, despite that decision to retain everybody, Mr. Damagun went ahead and received a list of APC agents and announced them as members and leaders of the PDP Local Government Caretaker Committees wholesomely in Rivers State and partially in at least 10 other states. This is a direct attempt to kill the PDP and ensure it goes into extinction.

“To make issues clearer, we are speaking on behalf of at least 60 lawmakers in the opposition lawmakers’ coalition in the National Assembly. We all won our elections without any form of help or support from the party hierarchy. It has become clearer to us that this scenario was foisted so that as many of us as possible will fail the elections. Damagum never really wanted us to win.