Fresh Crisis Brews In Enugu PDP Over Appointment Of New Party Chairman

 

A fresh crisis appears to be brewing in the Enugu State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following the sudden resignation of the state chairman of the party, Engr Vita Abba, and the purported appointment of a successor, in the person of managing director of Enugu State Housing Development Cooperation, Ikeje Asogwa.

According to a statement released at the end of an emergency State Executive Council, SEC, meeting of the party presided over by Governor Sullivan Chime and signed by the state publicity secretary of PDP, Okey Eze, the party said it had accepted the resignation of Abba as state party chairman.

The statement said the acceptance was based on a letter Abba sent to the SEC dated October 20 2014, which was read on the floor of the meeting purportedly to enable him stand for election in the forthcoming primary of the party.

However, it was learnt that the letter could have been a forgery as impecabble sources insisted that Engr Vita Abba had been down with stroke and was receiving treatment overseas.

In a terse reaction to the appointment of another chairman, the state deputy chairman of PDP, Elder David Aja, described it as illegal, null and void as according to him, it did not comply with the party’s constitution.
Elder Aja, who was at the said meeting where Asogwa was appointed, insisted that he remained the authentic acting chairman of the party in line with section 47 (1) of the PDP constitution.
He argued that he was the one duly empowered to convene the SEC meeting in the event of the resignation of the chairman and not the secretary.

Aja, who expressed disappointment over the development, told journalists that if the state Chairman of the party, Vita Abba, had truly resigned, he ought to be duly informed to enable him take over in acting capacity until a substantive state Chairman was elected.

Declaring the SEC decision as “illegal, null and void”, Aja said: “I told them that under section 45 (1) of the party’s constitution, if the national chairman resigns, the deputy chairman takes over, even if it is for one day and he should be the one to convene the National Executive Committee (NEC) where a new national chairman will be elected, but they turned down my submission.

“I was sitting beside Governor Chime and I told him that what they were doing was wrong because I am the right person to convene the meeting but he said that under section 47(1), that the SEC can meet and chose another person from the same zone to replace the chairman”.

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