Members of the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Thursday publicly disagreed over the report of the committee set up to look into the circumstances that led to the emergence of Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives against the directive of the party.
The party had sent the name of Hon. Kingsley Chinda to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for the House Minority Leadership position, but Elumelu eventually emerged for the position.
This development led to the suspension of Elumelu and six others for one month, which was later extended.
The suspension had, however, caused crisis in the party, which, took another dimension yesterday as the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Walid Jubrin and the Secretary of the board, Senator Adolphus Wabara disagreed over report of the Iyorchia Ayu-led committee that was set up to look into the aftermath of Elumelu’s emergence.
Addressing newsmen on Thursday shortly after the BoT meeting that lasted for about five hours, Jubrin said that the leadership of the party was handling all the issues in the party internally, including the aftermath of the emergence of the PDP Minority Leader in the House of Representatives Representatives.
He pointed out that the report of the committee has not been submitted.
A disagreement, however, ensued when Wabara wanted to explain to journalists that the Ayu-led committee report had been submitted to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
But, Jubrin immediately replied that the report had not been submitted to anybody.
According to him, “we are still considering the report and we have not submitted the report to anybody yet. The Ayu report we are still on it, but we discussed it at the meeting.”
The BoT Chairman had earlier said that the meeting was just about how to build peace and reconcile all aggrieved members of the party, adding that just the way they visited the party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in Dubai, they will also be visiting other party leaders and stakeholders to resolve crisis and ensure that the party enjoys peace.
According to him, “These issues are internal we are already handling them, they are purely internal. Just the way we visited Atiku, we are also visiting all our leaders across the country
“Our case is that all these things happening are internal and we are handling them internally,” he said.
On Kogi governorship election, he said, “we are appealing to all contesters to consider the party first. They should abide by the decision of the party and I appeal to all of them to remain calm.”
Earlier in a statement, the party explained its position on the suspension of Elumelu and others, adding that their position remains.
PDP, in a statement by its Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan said that it has not reviewed its subsisting stance on the minority leader of the House of Representatives.
The party further said that it has not received any report from the BoT concerning the outcome of the five-member committee it set up to intervene on the contentious matter.
“In the light of public enquiries and conflicting reports on the position of the leadership of our great party on issues related to the minority leadership of the House of Representatives; the National Working Committee (NWC) hereby clarifies that it has not yet received any report from the Board of Trustees (BoT) concerning the outcome of the five-member committee it set up to intervene on the contentious matter.
“Consequently, the NWC maintains that it has not taken any decision to review its subsisting stance on the minority leader of the House of Representatives.
“The NWC, therefore, urges critical stakeholders, party members and the general public to completely disregard any report to the contrary,” the party said.
and then