With the countdown to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, national convention gathering momentum, some of the party’s most influential voices have raised the stakes by issuing a six-point demand to the National Working Committee, NWC.
They reached the decision at a high-powered stakeholders’ meeting held at the residence of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister and former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Monday night in Abuja.
At the meeting, former Benue State governor, Dr Samuel Ortom; ex-Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose; former Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, and his Enugu counterpart, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, declared that the opposition party must return to the path of equity, fairness and inclusivity if it hopes to remain a credible alternative for Nigerians.
Also present at the meeting was the National Secretary of the party, Senator Sam Anyanwu.
In a communique issued in the early hours of Tuesday on behalf of the group and signed by Ortom, the stakeholders warned that failure to meet their demands would “render any purported national convention invalid, as legitimate members of the party would be disenfranchised”.
The six demands
The PDP heavyweights insisted that:
- A fresh congresses must be held in Ebonyi and Anambra states, in strict compliance with subsisting court judgments
- A new South East Zonal Congress must be urgently conducted.
- The outcome of the South South Congress in Calabar, already upheld by the courts, must be respected.
- PDP should immediately conduct the Ekiti LGA congresses, in line with judicial pronouncements.
- There should be no micro-zoning of offices, beyond the general zoning formula already adopted by the National Executive Committee NEC, to maintain peace and stability.
- The national chairmanship position must remain in the North Central, consistent with the zoning arrangement of the 2021 convention.
The leaders stressed that the PDP is at a “defining crossroads,” and that any attempt to sideline valid members or ignore judicial rulings would only deepen divisions.
“Unity cannot be built on disenfranchisement, exclusion, or the neglect of valid judicial pronouncements,” the communiqué read. It added that only transparency and fairness would guarantee a credible convention.
The stakeholders cautioned the PDP leadership that ignoring these resolutions could plunge the party into further crisis.
“The PDP was built on the foundation of inclusivity, fairness, and justice. To reclaim its pride of place as Nigeria’s true opposition, the party must now rise above narrow interests and embrace collective responsibility”, they urged.
With the 2027 general elections already casting a long shadow over internal party politics, the intervention by Wike, Ortom, Fayose, and Ikpeazu signals renewed pressure on the PDP to put its house in order.
[Vanguard News]
