Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The immediate past governor of Benue state, Chief Samuel Ortom PhD together with the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro have cleared the rumours that the People’s Democratic Party Will be having a mini convention on November 28 to replace the Acting National Chairman of the party, Ambassador Damagun.
Speaking at an expanded Caucus meeting of the party which held at the party’s Secretariat in Makurdi yesterday, the leader of the party in the state, Chief Samuel Ortom PhD said there was no vacant position for the office of the PDP national chairman.
Ortom stated that a court of competent jurisdiction has already ruled that there was no vacant position for the said office.
He said: “The issue is that there is no vacancy for the national chairman position of PDP for now. People are free to campaign if they are interested and want to be there, but there is a subsisting court judgement, not a court order, that there is no vacant position.
“So I cannot be commenting on something that a legitimate high court in Nigeria has ruled on. When that time comes, the stakeholders are here, and we will discuss. If the party decides that it should come to us, we will discuss and decide who should be there,”
In his own remarks, Senator Abba Moro
said that the People’s Democracy Party (PDP) Senate caucus was yet to take a position on the party’s national chairmanship seat.
The Senate minority leader who said that the caucus would meet at the appropriate time to make its decision also dispelled the rumours making the rounds that PDP would hold a mini convention on November 28th.
According to him, there would be the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on the said date and not a mini convention.
He said: “What PDP is holding is a NEC meeting. Let nobody deceive you that there is going to be a mini convention on November 28. Of course the issue of the national chairman of our party is on the front burner of national discourse, so it will be discussed during the meeting.”
Meanwhile, the Benue chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has constituted a 55-member reconciliation committee to reconcile all aggrieved members after the congresses.
The State Chairman, Mr Ezekiel Adaji, who inaugurated the committee at an expanded stakeholders meeting on Monday in Makurdi, urged them to take the assignment seriously.
Adaji said members of the committee were people of proven integrity and were trusted to do a good job.
The chairman charged them to be meticulous in their assignment by listening to all aggrieved party members during their assignment and being fair to all.
His words: “The committee members were carefully selected, two each from the 23 local government areas and three women each from the three senatorial districts, all totalling 55. The committee members from the three senatorial districts would choose their chairman and secretary,”
Adaji said that shortly after the state congress and their inauguration, the party was evicted from their old secretariat, but Chief Samuel Ortom gave the party another secretariat.
He told the stakeholders that the ward, LG, and state congresses in the state were all approved by the national secretariat of their party.