The Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Umar Ilyas Damagum, has come under fresh pressure from stakeholders of the party who want him out.
This time, they hope to seal his fate not later than February 2025.
The PDP Governors’ Forum, the party’s Board of Trustees, National Assembly Caucus, former Governors Forum, Former Ministers’ Forum and the National Working Committee (NWC) yesterday met in Jos, the Plateau State capital, where they directed the Damagum-led NWC to call the much postponed meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) by the first week of February.
The planned deliberation, according to them, is to allow for elaborate consultations with critical stakeholders of the party.
They plan to use the period between now and the forthcoming meeting to “address the existential problems confronting the party, with a deliberate timeline of activities within the period under review to address issues of leadership and litigations” facing it.
The anti-Damagum members do not want him to remain in the saddle until November next year when he could have influence on the election of the party’s next leadership that will oversee the emergence of the party’s presidential candidate in 2027.
But sources told The Nation last night that the plot might not work out as envisaged.
At yesterday’s meeting, some participants, notably from the North Central Caucus led by Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang, pressed for a PDP NEC meeting to decide on a substantive national chairman from the zone to complete Senator Iyorchia Ayu’s tenure.
It was however gathered that some other members including the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, were able to calm frayed nerves.
A source said: “With a clear expression of common conviction that the current economic challenges (in the country) would ensure PDP’s victory in 2027, Governor Bala Mohammed and Governor Seyi Makinde, who considered lingering indications that preparations for PDP zonal congresses might be another excuse for the Damagum-led PDP National Working Committee to do a fifth postponement of PDP NEC Meeting, proposed a firm consensus that the meeting must take place in late January or early February 2025.”
The NEC meeting had been shifted four times, leaving those against Damagum’s continued stay in office apparently frustrated.
The situation almost got out of hand on October 11 when the pro and anti-Damagum sides resorted to self-help with each side claiming to sack key party functionaries loyal to the other side.
The Damagum group went a step further by obtaining a court order restraining the party from removing him as acting national chairman.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja also restrained the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) from recognising any person other than Damagum as PDP chairman until the national convention of the party scheduled for December next year.
Justice Lifu held that under Articles 42, 47 and 67 of the PDP constitution, it is only at the National Convention of the party that national officers can be elected.
The judge said PDP members are bound by the constitution of the party and as such must always act in line with the provisions and obedience to the party’s law.
The Nation
