Report just reaching us suggests that Prof. Jerry Gana led Peoples Democratic Party faction, which held own convention at Abuja today has also postoned the election of the party national officers, but picked Ibrahim Mantu and professor Tunde Adeniran as the national coordinators of party pending the time a substantive convention will be held.
The Port Hourcour version had also picked former governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi and Ben Obi as the Secretary, News Punch had earlier reported.
Reported monitored via Daily Trust Newspaper says, the former minister of information, Prof Jerry Gana-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Saturday, held a parallel national convention of the party at the M & M Event Centre, Abuja, which shelved the elections of national officers of the party.
The convention which started by 10 am and ended by 12 pm adopted a former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu and Professor Tunde Adeniran as coordinators of the party pending when the next national convention of the faction would be held.
Although the date for their next convention was not announced, the convention also ratified a 57-member steering committee that would administer the affairs of the party nationwide.
A member of the steering committee, Chief Dubem Onyia moved a motion that "in compliance with the court order, Mantu and Adeniran should run the party until the next convention." Mantu and Adeniran were upheld as the co-chairmen of the party.
Addressing the crowd, Mantu who enumerated the achievements of the PDP during its 16 years of reign as the 'biggest party in Africa' added that the 16 years also led to mistakes that needed to be addressed by Concerned PDP Stakeholders in order to deepen democracy in the country.
He said the stakeholder viewed the extension of the PDP national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff's tenure by the National Working Committee (NWC) as "null and void" as the National Executive Committee (NEC) cannot grant any such extension under the party's constitution.
Mantu said NEC's appointment of Sheriff as chairman of the party was a "gross violation" of the established procedure for the selection as Sheriff was not among the nominees sent by the North-east caucus of the party to the party's national leadership.
According to the former law maker, Sheriff's decision to go ahead with the "illegal convention in Port Harcourt in disobedience for a valid court judgement stopping the convention" signalled a wearisome trend that would further weaken the party.
He added that the Gana-led faction was aimed at rebuilding, renewing and re-branding the party to anchor the dreams of its founding fathers and give wings to the hopes of citizens who "live in uncertainty and surrounded by a growing culture of fear."
He said: "mindful of our role as elders and conscience of our great party, we the elders reviewing recent events have come to the painful conclusion that the culture of impunity, disdain for democratic norms and utter disregard of our party's constitution, behaviours that brought us to the 2015 loss, are rearing its ugly head again.
"The current challenges in the PDP is symptomatic of our democratic heritage and signals the begin
Credit: Daily Trust
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