For Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, problems don’t rain, they pour.
Just as the party struggles to wriggle out of it’s internal problems which analysts fear may lead to an implosion, the crisis deepened on Friday as a faction of the National Working Committee announced that it has suspended the acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, for alleged disloyalty to the party.
Before that, a faction of the NWC sympathetic to Damagum had announced the suspension of the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, and the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, also for alleged disloyalty to the party.
However, a new dimension was introduced to the issue when, Ologunagba also announced in a statement on Friday that Damagum and Anyanwu have been suspended.
Ologunagba’s statement read in part: “The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has extensively considered the series of complaints raised against the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Illiya Damagum and National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, particularly with regard to the letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No:CA/PH/307/2024 against the party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The NWC condemned this anti-party activity of the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary which is in gross violation of the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017) and their Oath of Office.
“Consequently, the NWC, pursuant to Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, has suspended Amb. Illiya Damagum and Sen. Samuel Anyanwu as Acting National Chairman and National Secretary of the Party respectively and referred them to the National Disciplinary Committee for further action.
“In the meantime, the two officials are suspended from all meetings, activities and programs of the NWC pending the conclusion of an investigation by the National Disciplinary Committee.”