Crisis Hits PDP

The uproar that greeted the appointment for the minority positions yesterday at the House of Representatives may be a sign that all is not well with the major opposition party in the country- the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is embroiled in crisis.

The party had submitted a list of her members in the green chambers to the Speaker for the various minority positions, but the list was ignored by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.

In the said list, the PDP had nominated Kingsley Chinda as the Minority Leader. The party also nominated Chukwuka Onyema as Deputy Minority Leader; Yakubu Barde as Minority Whip and Muraina Ajibola as Deputy Minority Whip.

Gbajabiamila instead went ahead to announce the list of other members of the party for the said positions. In the list he announced Ndudi Elumelu as the Minority leader, alongside Toby Okechukwu as Deputy Minority Leader, Gideon Gwani as Minority Whip and Adesegun Adekoya as Deputy Minority Whip a decision led to the rowdy session as some aggrieved lawmakers attempted to take the maze.

They said they would not accept a situation where the majority in the House will impose a minority leader on members.

However, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT of the PDP, Walid Jibrin, endorsed the election of Elumelu and others and said it followed previous pattern during his time as senator.

 Jibrin who expressed the Board’s support when Elumelu led other lawmakers to pay him a visit at his home noted that the process which led to the emergence of the new minority leader was in order.

In a swift reaction to the development at the house, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement issued to journalists yesterday insisted on its choice of Kingsley Chinda as the Minority Leader.

As it stands, the PDP appeared to have become factionalized with one party executives leading one and the BoT leading the other.

Ologbodiyan was not reacheable when THE WHISTLER called him to get his reaction on the division in the party.