A new crisis seems to be looming in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the position of the national chairman of the party.
A one-time political adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, on Tuesday, stormed the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, where he submitted his letter of intent to contest the position vacated by Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.
Gulak told newsmen that his action was in line with the party’s constitution that stated that “once a vacancy is created in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party,a replacement must come from the zone of the last occupant of that office.”
“I’m here to submit my letter of intent to fill the vacant position of the national chairman of our party, the PDP, I’m from Adamawa State in the North-East,the same zone with the last occupant of the office, Alhaji A. Muazu, the three months time frame of the acting national chairman of Prince Uche Secondus, had expired,so, he must vacate the seat for a replacement from the North-East,” he said.
On the position of the Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, that the next national chairman of the party should be pickedfrom the South-West, Gulak lashed out at Fayose, saying that he was ignorant of the party’s constitution.
“Fayose should avail his mind to the provisions of the party’s constitution and digest them. If he had, he should have known that a replacement for the resigned chairman should come from the North-East. I didn’t say so, the party’s constitution did,” he argued.
However, in a swift reaction to Gulak’s position, the NWC of the party declared that there was no vacancy for the office of national chairman of the party for now,insisting that Prince Uche Secondus still remained its acting national chairman as there were procedures to be followed for the election or appointment of a new national chairman.
At a joint press conference addressed by the trio of NWC members, Professor Wale Oladipo (national secretary), Chief Olisa Metuh (national publicity secretary) and Mr Victor Kwon (national legal adviser), the party stated that Gulak was ignorant of section 45(2) of the party that clearly states that when the office of the national chairman “is vacant, the deputy national chairman of the party immediately assumes office in acting capacity pending the replacement which is exactly what happened in the case of Secondus.
They pointed that there was no time frame in the said provision of the party’s constitution and moreso that the NWC was working round the clock to put its house in order after the unfortunate loss it recorded in the last general election.
“PDP is a party that is guided by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its own constitution, we are following the provisions of the two books in administering the party, we are advising Alhaji Gulak to go and read the constitution of the party very well rather than misleading members of the party and the general public about the party,” the national legal adviser counselled Gulak.
Also the party’s national secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo, in reaction to Gulak’s purported letter, said that he (Gulak) knows nothing about the party and denied seeing him at the secretariat let alone receiving any letter from him.
According to him: “Gulak should know that the current acting chairman is not leading a caretaker committee, and the constitution provides that he, being the deputy national chairman, should assume office in the event that the chairman is not there.
“And there is no time limit for such situation as this. So, there is no vacancy for anybody to come and occupy until the NEC decides on what to do at a congress.”
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