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•Party inaugurates disciplinary, reconciliation committee today

Chuks Okocha and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Foremost Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday, said Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, must leave Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the party to overcome its current travails.

Clark, in another letter to the national leadership of PDP, sought a thorough probe of the alleged anti-party activities against Wike over the political crisis rocking Rivers State and recommended commensurate punishment.

Relatedly, PDP will today inaugurate its recently constituted reconciliation and disciplinary committees. National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, announced this in a statement yesterday

Clark, a First Republic information minister, insisted in the third letter to PDP that if found guilty, Wike should be expelled from the party.

He expressed fears that PDP was on the verge of extinction if the former Rivers State governor remained in the party with his alleged excesses.

In the letter he addressed to PDP’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, dated August 20, 2024, Clark said the National Working Committee (NWC) must take a decisive action against Wike to save the party.

He added that something had to be done to tame characters who saw themselves to be above the law, before they grew too monstrous and hard to be tamed.

The elder statesman stated, “We already have enough issues on our hands as a nation, because the persons responsible did not act fast when the cases were brewing.

“The purpose of this Open Letter, therefore, Mr. Acting National Chairman of PDP, is to call on you to immediately set up a probe panel/committee to probe members, like Barr. Nyesom Wike, and if found guilty, to face the appropriate sanctions as prescribed by the party’ s constitution.

“It is not the setting up of a reconciliation committee under the chairmanship of Maj. Gen. Oyinlola, with whom, when I discussed, asked him whom he is reconciling, because the G-5 members have disintegrated.

“While the governor of Oyo State, who was a member of the G-5, has retraced his steps back to his party fully, and today leader of the party in the South-west, the other three are floating about.

“To urge you to also purge yourself of all malfeasance. As Acting National Chairman of your party, you took your party’s NWC to court on the defection of the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“This is because they did not leave the PDP properly, they are still members of the party, even after the 27 members had publicly declared that they have defected, and had already been received by the APC.

“Your position, Mr. Acting National Chairman, is antithetical to the position of Section 109 of the constitution. You took your party’s NEC to court, an organ you preside over. Yet you still have the presence of mind to remain in office, earning benefits that come with the office.

“From all indications, you are conniving with detractors of PDP to ruin the party, for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Allow Nigerians to decide what party they want through the ballot box. Stop colluding with Barr. Nyesom Wike to destroy the party. A day of reckoning will come for all of man’ s activities.”

Meanwhile, PDP will today inaugurate its recently constituted reconciliation and disciplinary committees.

Ologunagba said in a statement that the 25-member reconciliation committee was chaired by former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, while Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, a former governor of Gombe State, was the secretary.

Ologunagba also stated that the 26-man disciplinary committee had Chief Tom Ikimi as chairman and Eyitayo Jegede as secretary. Other members included Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Chief Olabode George, Margaret Icheen, Dr Sam Egwu, and Alhaji Abubakar Baraje.