The Barr. Nnamdi Anyaehie led Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last Saturday October 21, 2017 gave the true position of the party. In the release which he personally signed, Anyaehie stated that he is not unmindful of the expectation of Imo people State who have so far endured over six years of mis-governance under the Okorocha administration. Anyaehie said he is worried that at a time Imo PDP ought to put its house in order so as to win the 2019 gubernatorial and other elections in Imo State in order to salvage the ugly situation, the party is still embroiled in unmitigated crisis.
He observed that the plethora of intra party disputes are not an exclusive reserve of Imo PDP but equally prevalent in almost all political parties in Nigeria even among the very newly registered ones that have not participated in elections before, or have anything to share yet.
He sees the present lingering crisis as indication that, “our nascent democracy is passing through some teething problems. It was on this note that he sued for peace and unity so as to nip every domestic impediment within the party in the bud so as to be on a sound legal and moral pedestal to confront the opponent political parties, frontally.
Chief Anyaehie said, “we cannot go for elections with domestic enemies, saboteurs, revenge seekers, back stabbers and pseudo members who are already at the departure lounge waiting to board their flight to APC and BUHARI if we lose in 2019 due to their decadent posturing. On this note therefore Anyaehie recalled that the Chairman National Caretaker Committee of PDP, Senator Ahmed Markafi had declared that there should be no victor, no vanquished and that having reiterated that structures of the party in various state chapters affirmed and inaugurated by the immediate past National Executive Committee (NEC) led by Senator Modu Sherriff before May 21, 2016 convention remain that Imo chapter should not be an exception.
He disclosed that Owerri zone had between 1998 and 2010, occupied the position of state chairman of the party before Orlu zone took over with Barr. Eze Duruiheoma till date. He stated that Duruiheoma would have continued in office as state chairman but for the appointment he paved way for his emergence to complete his second tenure. He also posited that any attempt to deny him this constitutional right will lead to protests and marginalization of a zone of 12 LGAs. He described as rejected and contrived, the attempt to donate the state chairmanship position to Okigwe zone.
Speaking further Anyaehie traced his problems to his refusal to acknowledge the over N700 million donated to the party by ex-president Jonathan which was hijacked or out rightly stolen by a few leaders.
He referred to the group led by Chief Charles Babatunde Ezekwem as cobbled together by one man anxious to be the owner of PDP in Imo State and whose angry fixation is to be an unchallenged gubernatorial candidate for 2019 elections. “It is unarguable that since then, every absurd effort has been made to legitimize this illegality to no avail including patch, patch resolutions here and there, simply because legally, you cannot build something on nothing and expect it to stand”, he declared on the role of Chief Emeka Ihedioha in festering the lingering crisis, Anyaehie admitted that, “our former candidates who emerged in clearly controversial circumstances, instead of being a shield for the defence of our party has irredeemably become a sword for decapitating the solidarity, unity, peace and progress of the PDP in the state. He added that Emeka Ihedioha’s politics of exclusion, intransigence and emperor Nero tendencies hard chased some valuable stakeholders, co governorship aspirants away from the party.
