Former Bayelsa governor and Senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, has called on embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche Secondus not to be bothered about the orchestrated plot for his removal.
Dickson made the declaration, on Monday, in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja.
Three members of the PDP National Working Committee and three Vice chairmen of the party had in a purported meeting passed a vote of no confidence in Prince Secondus.
The PDP House of Representatives Caucus in a statement signed by Honourable Kingsley Chinda claimed that Prince Secondus has outlived his relevance and should dismount as national chairman.
Senator Dickson however faulted the vote of no confidence passed in Secondus.
The former Bayelsa State governor maintained that six out of the 19 members of NWC couldn’t have spoken for the majority.
He said: “By the way, the NWC has 19 members and only 6 of them signed the statement leaving out the majority of 13 who were not at the meeting and the chairman who was not aware, who did not attend, who did not authorise and who did not preside over the said meeting and therefore it is not only a nullity but an act of gross misconduct.
Senator Dickson also noted that the minority leader of the Representatives is Honorable Ndudi Elumelu, not Honourable Kingsley Chinda.
While dismissing the narrative against the PDP leadership under Prince Secondus as a “media frenzy, Senator Dickson noted that by virtue of the PDP Constitution, the national Chairman could only resign voluntarily, not stampeded out of office.
The statement further read in part: “Let me also bring to the attention of all that by the PDP constitution, a vote of no confidence even by a duly constituted NWC or other organs of the party does not remove a Chairman. The chairman is voted for and can only be removed by the National Convention unless on his own volition, he chooses to resign. So I call on all leaders of the party that this is perhaps their last effort to save the PDP.
“Like me, most of us have paid dearly and have paid our dues since 2015 when we lost the Presidential elections and like me, we should all not rest on our oars or leave any stone unturned in the bid to strengthen and reposition the party including calling people to order and standing up against illegality when we have to.
“There is no crisis in the party. What is happening is only a contrived media crisis orchestrated and funded by some people with a motive to hijack the party without subjecting themselves and their cronies to a democratic vote at the convention which is due in less than 4 months.
“This has nothing to do with Secondus performance but a coup against a major democratic institution in Nigeria and must be resisted and stopped by all lovers of democracy and all men of good conscience in Nigeria.
“The decamping of governors and other leaders is not the fault of Secondus. It happens from time to time in all political parties from 1999 till date. The PDP has received Governors, presiding officers of the National Assembly and other political leaders under Secondus and will continue to do so after this crisis.
“It is these people orchestrating these crises that have made governors and other leaders leave the party because of the needless crisis and the toxic political atmosphere created by them within the party.
“Since we lost the 2015 elections, Secondus has laboured to keep the party in spite of harassment, campaigned round to support candidates without the so-called ‘taxation’ which has been put to an end in the party.
“He is one of the most experienced political party administrators in the party and in the country right from his days as NPN youth leader to date. He has seen it all and done it all. The whole issue is that Secondus insists that party decisions should be taken by all stakeholders and not by a few especially decisions about the direction of the party in 2023.
“I call on the National Chairman to utilize all options and powers available to him under the constitution and to take steps to ensure that no officer or member no matter how highly placed usurps, or impedes the exercise of his rights, powers and duties as national chairman or is allowed to plunge the party into another needless crisis.”
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