PDP Legal Adviser Replies NWC Members Seeking Secondus’s Sack
According to Emmanuel Enoidem, the National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), only a national convention can dismiss the National Working Committee (NWC) or any national officer.
On Monday, Enoidem responded to a statement published by some NWC members following a meeting in Abuja on Sunday night.
Six of the nine members voted for Uche Secondus, the controversial PDP National Chairman, to be fired.
Suleiman Nazif, Deputy National Chairman (North); Umar Tsauri, National Secretary; Adamu Mustapha, National Auditor; and Abdulahi Maibasira, National Financial Secretary, attended the meeting.
Others were Youth Leader, S. K. Udeh-Okoye; Vice Chairman (SW), Taofiq Arapaja; Vice Chairman (SE), Ali Odefa; Vice Chairman (SS), Dan Orbih, and Vice chairman (NC), Chief Theophilus Dakas.
“The matter of his resignation was put to vote, six members voted that he should resign and three members abstained from voting”, the communique read.
Nazif, Mustapher, Udeh- Okoye, Arapaja, Orbih, and Odefa were among the six NWC members that voted against Secondus.
Six national vice chairmen from the geopolitical zones are among the PDP’s 18 members.
According to Section 29 (3) and (4) of the PDP constitution, only the national chairman or a summons from two-thirds of NWC members can hold a meeting, according to Enoidem.
The officials’ actions were “in total disrespect and defiance of plain extant parts of our constitution,” he said.
According to Enoidem, every officer’s decision to quit at any level is a personal one, as indicated in Sections 45(1) and 47(5).
“There is no provision in our constitution which donates powers to any individuals to ask an officer of the party to resign for any reason whatsoever, as was purported in the so called press release.
“The powers to remove any member of the NWC and indeed any national officer is reserved in the national convention which is due for December 2021″, he stressed.
