The National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Emmanuel Enoidem has told members of the party’s National Working Committee that they have no power to remove Prince Uche Secondus as the PDP National Chairman.
According to Enoidem, no national officer is empowered to remove Secondus from office.
He added in a statement on Monday that the power to remove Secondus as the party’s national chairman resides only in the party’s national convention as contained in its constitution.
He said this in reaction to a communique purportedly issued by nine members of the NWC of the party, after a meeting held in Abuja on Sunday night.
Enoidem highlighted that by Section 29 (3) of the PDP constitution, it is the national chairman or a summon, backed by 2/3 members of the NWC that can validly convene a meeting of the NWC.
He added that Subsection (4) of the PDP constitution provided for 2/3 members of NWC to form a quorum for a meeting of the NWC.
“As a bona fide member of the NWC, to the best of my knowledge, I am not aware of any meeting of NWC, summoned by the national chairman or in the manner provided aforesaid.
“It is, therefore, of grave concern, and indeed, very sad to read the above position, purportedly taken by some distinguished members of NWC in utter disdain and violation of clear extant provisions of our constitution.
“The issue of resignation of any officer of our party at any level is a personal decision as stipulated in Sections 45(1) & 47(5).
“There is no provision in our constitution which donates powers to any organ, individuals or group of persons 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.”
Enoidem further called for all stakeholders to work for the unity and progress of the state rather than seek anybody’s downfall at such a critical time.
He said: “This bad press, caused the party at this critical time is most uncalled for, needless and wanton, and must be discontinued if we are mindful of the interest of the party.”
Naija News recalls nine members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met on Sunday to extensively deliberate on the crisis rocking the main opposition party.
At the end of their deliberations, the majority of them were of the view that the embattled National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus has and should be shown the exit door.
Naija News learnt from highly-placed sources that the NWC members felt that the Rivers-born politician has grossly mismanaged the party and described Secondus as highly incompetent.
They also claimed that he has factionalized the party and has lost the confidence of PDP members.
Earlier, seven NWC members of the PDP resigned their position in protest over an alleged poor leadership of the party.
This article was originally published on Nigeria News