Convention: Imo PDP crisis worsens as another exco emerges

A faction within the Imo State wing of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  True Democrats of Imo PDP, has   inaugurated members of its executive with a former member of the State House of Assembly, Chief Greg Owuamanam, emerging as chairman.

The leader of the group and a one-time chairman of the party in the state, Dr Alex Obi, while speaking at the inauguration, which drew five members from each of the 27 local government areas of the state, lamented that the culture of impunity and imposition of candidates on the party for elections had become the bane of the party leading to its defeat in previous elections in Nigeria.

Dr Obi, a former governorship candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), angrily castigated some chieftains of the party in the state for masterminding the crisis rocking the party to achieve their 2019 ambition.

Said he, “But we said no to this kind of nonsense, hence we are calling ourselves the true democrats of the party in the state, even as he dismissed the parallel congress organised by the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha and others as mere inauguration of their campaign structures ahead the 2019 election, pointing out that by so doing they had closed the door for other party members nursing ambitions.

“We are saying no because this party does not belong to any body or group and it does not belong to any party or  individual, but to all of us and for us to rescue the party from where it is today, we must change from the way we do things.”

Responding on behalf of his colleagues, the chairman of the new executive, Chief Greg Owuamanam, thanked  members  for the confidence reposed in them through the election and promised not to disappoint them, even as the three zonal chairmen of the party,  Chief Amaugo Ugorji (Owerri); Okey Dike (Orlu) and Chief Chibuike Amaechi (Okigwe),  charged the members to go and disseminate the vision of the group to the grassroots.