PDP Boils Over House Minority Leadership Divides BoT.

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the Minority leadership in the House of Representatives took a new dimension on Thursday as it divided the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT).

The fresh crisis manifested in the open disagreement between the chairman of PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin and its secretary, former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, at a press conference over the report of a BoT committee on the crisis over the House Minority leadership currently occupied by Hon Ndudi Elumelu.

The Jibrin and Wabara clash happened after the BoT rose from a five hour meeting at the PDP national secretariat over the contentious matter.

While Jibrin maintained that the report has not been submitted to the National Working Committee because it had not been finalised, Wabara countered that the report has been submitted to the party leadership after deliberation by the BoT.

Undettered by the presence of Television cameras, the two apparently livid leaders, being unable to reach a position on the report, left the press center, walked to their separate cars within the party premises and drove off.

The Minority Leadership had been an issue of friction within the PDP shortly after Hon Elumelu snatched the position from the jaws of the party’s preferred candidate, Hon Kingsley Chinda.

Miffed by the situation，PDP had suspended Elumelu and six others Reps members on grounds of indiscipline.

Following the suspension, the PDP BoT had setup a committee under the leadership of former Senate President Iyorcha Ayu to intervene in the matter.

Other members of the Ayu committee  are Senator David Mark, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and Senator Adolphus Wabara as members while Hon. Austin Opara served as secretary of the committee.

Miffed by the outcome of the events in the party,  the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, barely two weeks ago accused the Ayu-led committee of being corrupt over the matter. He stated this against the backdrop of Honor Austin Opara’s withdrawal from the committee.

However indications that the crisis would deepen emerged early Thursday  while the BoT meeting on the report was ongoing as the PDP NWC issued a statement on its position over the matter which noted that it’s suspension of Elumelu and other leaders still persists.

The statement signed by the national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, read “In the light of public enquiries and conflicting reports on the position

of the leadership of our great party on issues related to the minority

leadership of the House of Representatives;

“The National Working Committee (NWC) hereby clarifies that it has not yet received any report from the Board of Trustees (BoT) concerning the outcome of the five-member committee it set up to intervene on the contentious matter.

“Consequently, the NWC maintains that it has not taken any decision to review its subsisting stance on the minority leadership of the House of Representatives.

“The NWC therefore urges critical stakeholders, party members and the general public to completely disregard any report to the contrary,” the statement said.

However, the magnitude of the division within the BoT manifested after a five-hours meeting yesterday while the BoT chairman, Jibrin and the secretary, Wabara were addressing the press.

Jibrin who had evaded series of questions over the outcome of their meeting over the Ayu committee report, had maintained that the issue was an internal matter and would be addressed internally.

He said, “it is an internal issue and we will deal with it internally and by the time we finish we will all laugh.”

He added, “We need to be united before anything. We should avoid all crisis, all internal wranglings. When we come together we can start of think of finding a way forward.

The party is very determined to move ahead to ensure that the struggle continues therefore we call on our members to remain calm resolute and not to cause any trouble with anybody.  We are going to continue with our party,” he noted.

In what seemed like a bid to clarify an issue over the committee in question,  Wabara declared, “the BOT debated the report and we have handed it over to the NWC.”

In a prompt response the BoT chairman promptly countered, ” I am the chairman of the BoT,  we have not submitted the report.”

“We are still studying it. We have not taken a position on the report,” he thundered just as Wabara repeatedly shook his head in a sign of disagreement.