Senator Seriake Dickson representing Bayelsa West Senatorial District and the immediate past governor of Bayelsa State has accused some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of going outside the party Constitution, plotting to remove Prince Uche Secondus as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Dickson in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday day said any meeting that has to do with affairs of PDP without the instance of the National Chairman is illegal.
The former governor was reacting to series of calls by some elements within the party fold to remove the Chairman for ineptitude leadership, but Dickson made referral to the provision of the party Constitution.
The statement said: “My attention has been drawn to a purported statement by some members of the National Working Committee who went outside the constitution of the party and convened a meeting in a hotel room without the knowledge, consent and presence of the Chairman.
“I want to draw the attention of PDP leaders, members and Nigerians at large that the meeting was the action of a few party officers and does not represent a valid resolution or decision of the National Working Committee known to the PDP constitution.
“By the PDP constitution, only the National Chairman of the party can summon and preside over meetings of the organs of the party, especially the NWC of which he is Chairman. So the purported meeting and the outcome therefore are part of the plot to contrive a needless crisis in the PDP.
He insisted that the call was invalid given that only three members of the National Working Committee and Vice Chairmen signed the statement.
“It is part of the scheme to call a dog a bad name to hang it. The general public should note that the statement signed by some members: 3 members of the working committee and 3 Vice chairmen of the party (as indicated in the press release) does not constitute a valid resolution of the National Working Committee.
“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 authorize and who did not preside over the said meeting and therefore it is not only a nullity but an act of gross misconduct.
“It is all an effort to contrive a crises in the party to further the ulterior objective of those who are funding it, the intent of which is to cause a major crisis in the PDP.
Secondly, my attention was also drawn to a purported statement by the Reps caucus. As Nigerians and all PDP leaders know, the minority leader of the Reps is Honorable Ndudi Elumelu not Hon Kingsley Chinda, and members of the House of Representatives caucus have already spoken that they did not hold any such meeting and the Chairman of the caucus Hon Ndudi Elumelu has rightly issued a statement which is in the public domain that he did not summon or preside over such a meeting.
“Therefore, Nigerians should disregard the reported decision of the purported rep caucus meeting.
“All this is to create a media frenzy backed up by the sponsored demonstrations at the party secretariat on Monday which are designed to force the chairman to resign in order to set up a caretaker committee which is illegal. Happily the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus has issued a statement a short while ago that he will not resign. I support this decision fully as it is backed by the PDP constitution.”
He said Prince Secondus was a product of election and can be removed in a convention and not through gangsterism.
Meanwhile, CAPITAL POST earlier reported that the embattled National Chairman, in a statement on Monday insisted that he will not resign.
