Imo Guber: Uzodimma 1, Samdaddy 0 as tsunami of resignation hits Imo PDP 

 

From Everest Ezihe, Owerri

Certainly, things are fallen apart in Imo State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the strongest political party in the State that have shown capacity and capability of truncating the second term ambition of Governor Hope Uzodimma of All Progressive Congress, APC as seven principal officers of the State Working Committee, SWC resigned en mass on Sunday.

The resignation which was announced on Sunday during a world press conference held at the Okigwe Road Owerri, State party’s Secretariat conference hall christened “the Mass Resignation of Members of the Imo State Working Committee of the PDP” in which the officers concerned were in attendance and Comrade Collins Opurozor, the State Publicity Secretary of the party who’s part of the resignees read out the text of the press conference.

 

According to Opurozor those who resigned apart from himself include, Sir Martin Ejiogu, the State Deputy Chairman, Hon. Ray Emeana( Ray is Okay), the Secretary, Comrade Greg G.O.C Nwadike, the State Youth Leader and Mrs Maria Mbakwe, the State Woman Leader.

 

Others are Barr. Josiah Eze and Barr. Chibuisi Obodo who are the party’s Treasurer and Vice Chairman Orlu Senatorial Zone respectively

 

According to the former State Image Maker of the greatest opposition political party in the State, “Since 2020 when this Working Committee took over the administrative cockpit of the PDP in Imo State, we have evolved a tradition of being upfront with you as members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm about all issues that trouble our dear State. We have, through such interactions, inspired faith in a better Imo realized through good governance and democratic norms.

 

“Today, unfortunately, is not for such engagements. In unequivocal terms, we announce to you that the PDP in Imo State has now been damaged beyond redemption by the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu (Samdadday), and the Party is at last moving irreversibly to its terminus.

 

“It is necessary we remind you that in the last three years, this Working Committee has built a very strong, formidable and enviable PDP in Imo State. To enable the Party realize its promise of being a truly democratic entity, we envisioned the need to expand the internal democratic space by forming nearly five thousand chapters across all the polling units in the State. We took the Party to the people, and that made us the darling of Imo people. We accomplished this task despite our lean resources as an opposition. No other political party has attained this feat in Nigeria.

 

“More so, we institutionalized the culture of accountability in party administration, and demonstrated a readiness to govern and reform Imo.

 

“But, since Senator Anyanwu became the National Secretary of the Party, he has never relented in deploying the powers of his office to fight members of this Working Committee and intimidate even ordinary members of the Party. Endless strife, mindless wars and erosion of all democratic values and principles have now defined and defiled Imo PDP.

 

“Day after day, Senator Anyanwu still sponsors his very few loyalists to cook up puerile petitions against us and flood the National Secretariat of the Party with such inanities. On the basis of those contrivances, he has continued to threaten to dissolve the Party in Imo State, even after we have defeated him at the Supreme Court. Samdadday has remained unrelenting and unrepentant in his destructive agenda” they stated.

 

They also pointed out that, it is heartbreaking to inform the general publics through the press that some of them in the State Working Committee have severally escaped assassination attempts alleging that it was due to the wicked lies which they said that the National Secretary sold to his alleged violent supporters, that they misappropriated Party funds.

 

They further accused Senator Anyanwu of sending his aides from Abuja to steal the materials for last year’s congresses of the Party, thereby creating a stalemate that gulped all the party’s resources through multiple and controversial exercises and the appeasement of multiple stakeholders so as to save the Party from not fielding candidates for the 2023 elections.

 

According to them, “when Senator Anyanwu eventually succeeded at crowning himself the governorship candidate of the Party, he convened a meeting of all the LGA Youth Leaders at his residence in Owerri and confessed openly that he had lied to them about financial mismanagement in the Party by the State Working Committee.

 

“He also apologized to the State Youth Leader for the attacks and elimination attempts he had passed through because of the falsehoods which he (Samdadday) had propagated. He also recanted the lies and repeated the apologies during the only meeting he has had with us as members of the SWC since his emergence as governorship candidate. He said all the falsehoods peddled against us by him were as a result of his fight for survival.

 

“All of us in the State Working Committee are reputable people who have made their marks in their various areas of endeavour. How could Senator Anyanwu destroy our reputation, and also destroy the Party we have built, simply because of his fight for individual survival? The implication is that if by mistake he is allowed to govern Imo State, he will further destroy our dear State if only that would guarantee his individual survival !” they noted.

 

They further complained that last Saturday, armed thugs allegedly sponsored by Senator Anyanwu invaded the Party Secretariat and unleashed violence on them.

 

That the thugs also allegedly vandalized the party secretariat building, smashed all the glasses, beat the party’s security men to a pulp, broke into their offices, and looted everything they could find.

 

This latest attack they further alleged was the most brazen and audacious attempt to eliminate them insisting that the so-called function which Senator Anyanwu claims to have brought him and his alleged thugs to the Party Secretariat was totally unknown to them as SWC members.

 

They also alleged that, “when the State Chairman, Engr. Charles Ugwuh, made efforts to bring the police to investigate the attack, Senator Anyanwu stood against it. Is that not shocking? How can a man who says he wants to make Imo safe again be caught aiding and abetting acts of violence and insecurity even against his own Party members? There is clear danger! There is fire on the mountain! Run! Run!! Run!!! We must now run to stay alive !” they insisted.

 

They also lamented that, despite their electoral vigour, creativity and resources which their Party put into the 2023 general elections, that they made a very poor showing alleging further that Senator Anyanwu directed his loyalists to mobilize and work against the Party and her candidates at all levels in the State.

 

That as a responsible Working Committee, they had overlooked all these provocations and proceeded to set up a reconciliation committee ahead of the governorship election. But their teeming members across the State who felt deeply hurt by the actions of Senator Anyanwu have appeared before the reconciliation committee and declared their position, that allowing Senator Anyanwu to hold the flag of the Party is a reward for impunity and remorseless anti-party activities.

 

“This is the reason that, in the aftermath of Senator Anyanwu’s emergence as governorship candidate, hundreds of senior members of the Party have dumped the PDP. Four serving Federal lawmakers also dumped the Party along with thousands of their supporters in a single day. Those who stayed back have completely lost morale, only looking up to us for direction. And the moment has come.

 

“How do we explain to generations yet unborn that it was under our watch that one man became the National Secretary and governorship candidate, and also single-handedly chose a deputy governorship candidate for himself? Collegiality, stakeholding and consultations have all taken flight from Imo PDP” they complained.

 

They recalled that when the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha held sway as Leader of the Party, that they saw a robust, vibrant, inclusive and functional political party system, that every success recorded by Imo PDP was owe to the ingenuity, resources and outstanding leadership of Ihedioha, lamenting that all the maladies that have lately befallen them are squarely the making of Samdadday.

 

They also decried an alleged unjustly imposition of Samdadday on them as governorship candidate by the Ayu-led National Working Committee, describing the act as the second most cruel occurrence in history after Cain murdered Abel.

 

They vigorously accused Senator Anyanwu as not running for governorship in November and that if he claims to be running, it is not to their knowledge as members of the State Working Committee.

 

Saying that, “the party does not know what his program looks like. That is if he has any. Governorship campaigns have started, yet the Party does not also know if there is anything like a campaign council.

 

“The rent for the Party Secretariat has since expired, and the landlord has kept harassing us. Party staff have gone without salaries since Senator Anyanwu emerged as the candidate of the Party. The Party cannot afford to fuel our power generating set and even purchase stationeries for our offices. Yet, someone is parading himself as our governorship candidate. This deceit cannot be allowed to continue, and we cannot lend ourselves as tools for the deception of Imo people. Never!

 

“In view of the forgoing and many other shocking discoveries which will soon be made public, we, the undersigned members of the Imo State Working Committee of the PDP, have resolved to resign our various positions in the Party and dump the Party en masse.

 

“We have today opened the floodgate of resignations and defections, and in the next couple of weeks, there will be only Senator Anyanwu left in the Party” they assured.

 

However, each of them spoke endorsing the entire messages of the press conference even as most of them declared their interest to Join the ruling political party, APC soonest.

 

Meanwhile, Senator Anyanwu reacted by alleging that they were heavily paid by Governor Hope Uzodimma just to destabilize the opposition party.

 

 

The 7 members of Imo PDP State Working Committee that resigned during the press briefing. Pix by Everest Ezihe, Owerri