PDP Crisis: Atiku’s Men Plot As Wike Sets To Produce Trump Card

The internal crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is taking a new twist as loyalists of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar initiate fresh efforts to remove the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum.

Reports indicate that the Atiku group is strategizing to regain control through judicial interventions to remove Damagum.

According to insiders, the camp led by Nyesom Wike has been holding strategic meetings in Abuja and Port Harcourt, aiming to consolidate their recent court victories in the ongoing power struggle. The upcoming National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, scheduled for November 28, is viewed by Wike’s camp as an opportunity to keep Damagum in power for a longer period.

Meanwhile, Atiku’s faction, which has been weakened since the resignation of former National Chairman Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, continues to grapple with challenges in appointing a permanent replacement from the North Central region.

The recent ruling by a Federal High Court in Abuja, which restrained the NEC and the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) from removing Damagum from office, has added further complexity to the situation. A PDP NEC member, speaking anonymously to Vanguard, revealed that the party is assembling a legal team, led by two prominent Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), to challenge the court order.

The party insider criticized Damagum for delaying the convening of the NEC meeting, alleging that he is clinging to power for self-interest. The source stated, “Damagum has found one excuse or another to remain in office as acting chairman by refusing to convene NEC. His allies in Yobe State have now gone to court to stop the BoT and NEC from removing him.”

However, another source in the NEC told GWG.ng that the Wike camp was already ahead of the Atiku camp on the issue.

It was gathered that the Wike Camp was waiting to put up its trump card in the form of the 2017 amendment of the PDP constitution which led to the emergence of two deputy national chairmen.

Explaining how the Wike Camp is about to stop the plot to remove Damagum, a PDP NEC member with legs in both camps told GWG.ng:

“You remember that after the Modu Sheriff crisis that the late Gulak went to court to ensure that the PDP allowed the Northeast to again produce the national chairman. That was when Secondus (Prince Uche) acted as acting national chairman.

“It was in the face of that crisis that the PDP in 2017 amended its constitution to have two deputy national chairmen so that in the event that the office of national chairman becomes vacant the deputy national chairman from the section of the country that produced the substantive chairman runs out his tenure.

“So, this contention to remove Damagum is based on those who are working with the mind frame of the pre-2017 constitution amendment. After 2017 a deputy national chairman from any part of the country can act out the rest of the tenure and it need not be from the former national chairman’s zone.

“Based on the post-2017 constitution I can confidently tell you that the North-Central has no case and that Damagum except the untoward occurs will act out the rest of the tenure of Ayu,” the highly placed NEC member told GWG.ng adding, “Wike is always thinking two steps ahead of us.”

Recall that some party members believed to be aligned to Wike had last August obtained a court order restraining the NEC, Board of Trustees from removing Damagum.

With Additional reports from Vanguard
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