The tenure of the present National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will continue till 9 December, even as the national convention holds on Saturday, a party official has said.
The Chairman of the party National Convention Organising Committee, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, disclosed this on Friday, while briefing journalists on the party preparations for the convention in Abuja.
He said though the party wanted early convention holding on Saturday; it was not planning to truncate the tenure of the incumbent NWC members ending 9 December.
“There will be no vacuum because we are not truncating anybody’s tenure.
“We only call for an early convention, which is also in the provision of the Constitution.
“But that does not mean that because we are having an early convention we are terminating the tenure of the present NWC. They will still be asked to serve their term until 9 December.
“If not for anything it will give a better chance for them to interface and have a smooth transition,” he said.
Mr Fintiri said though the PDP expected vibrant new NWC members, it also appreciated the present national leaders of the party.
“They were able to galvanise support, plan and work for this party in 2019 to move from about 10 governors to almost 18, with more House of Representatives members than the previous election,” he said.
Speaking on the Saturday’s convention, Mr Fintiri said the Screening Appeal Committee upheld the disqualification of the three aspirants.
He clarified that Okey Muo-Aroh, contesting National Secretary was disqualified for not respecting the zoning arrangement of the party.
He said that the position of national secretary was zoned to the South, which micro-zoned it to the South-east.
He added that the South East caucus met and zoned it to Abia and Imo States while the Office of the Auditor was zoned to Enugu and Anambra.
He said that instead of Mr Muo-Aroh from Anambra to contest the office of auditor zoned to his state, he went to purchase a form for a position zoned to Imo and Abia States.
“I think every institution and organisation must have a way of disciplining its members.”
With regards to petitions against some of the cleared candidates, Mr Fintiri said “the appeal panel has found most of the petitions as baseless and frivolous and the petitions have been displaced.”
The governor noted that the party had achieved consensus in almost all the positions that would be veiled except for three positions on which negotiations were still ongoing.
He listed three positions still having more than one contestant to be deputy national chairman (South), national auditor and national youth leaders, saying the party was already in discussion with the contestants.
“At the moment, we are making efforts to reconcile most of our contestants so that we can streamline them to have a better convention, which will be hitch free and deepen our chances for 2023.”
He expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations for the convention, saying all the subcommittees have been mobilised and they are fully prepared to deliver by Saturday.
“Most of the activities have almost been completed and we are fully satisfied,” he said.
He added that 3,600 delegates were being expected in the convention.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the organising committee and party Leadership thereafter inspected the convention venue, Eagle Square, to inspect the level of preparedness.
Speaking with journalists, the PDP National Organising Secretary, Austin Akobundu, said the preparations were ongoing and everything would be completed before midnight.
Mr Akobundu said that so far there was no envisaged challenge regarding the venue and the level of preparations.
“We are ready for a party. This is what we do all the time. And there are lots of improvements because of the reforms our NWC has brought about in the party, especially in the area of accreditation.
“We have introduced technology and integrity based accreditation, which perhaps the National Assembly is afraid of, which we will be using tomorrow in terms of voting as a party.
“We have introduced it and it will become part of our activities from there.”
NAN reports that there was already tight security arraignment in and around the venue of the convention, even as delegates from states have started arriving.
(NAN)
