Calabar, Cross-River State (Nigeria): The Director of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River State, Mr Venatius Ikem, has vowed that the State Working Committee (SWC) will resist any attempt by the National Working Committee (NWC) to impose candidates ahead of the September 27 congress.
Mr Venatius Ikem, Chairman of the party in Cross River, remarked on Friday in Calabar, while reacting to the purported dissolution of the SWC.
Ikem, in a statement made available to journalists, noted that the purported dissolution was a ploy to create ways for the emergence of the predetermined candidates in the scheduled September 27 congress.
NAN reports that the NWC, through a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, had, on Thursday, dissolved the Cross River SWC.
While attributing the dissolution to the tenure expiration of the Venatius Ikem-led SWC, the statement directed the South-South caretaker committee to take over the affairs, and also conduct the September 27 state congress.
However, Ikem noted that the present SWC was inaugurated on September 29, 2021, and thus had until September 29, 2025, to complete their four-year tenure in office.
“This is the reason why the NWC fixed September 27 for the Cross River state congress,” Ikem explained.
He noted that the NWC did not convene or hold a meeting where a decision to dissolve the Cross River SWC was taken.
“We challenge any of its members to tell us where such a meeting was held. The Constitution of the PDP (as amended) has never approved chats on social media platforms as “Meetings” of the Party.
He said that the party stipulated genuine channels for convening its NWC meetings on crucial issues such as this, or anyone for that matter.
Ikem described the purported dissolution as illegal and a deliberate attempt to install an unpopular State Executive Committee member who would not win legitimately in the September 27 state congress.
According to him, this is a deliberate abuse of office and an affront to the Constitution of the Party.
He said that the action of NWC, purporting to be acting on behalf of the party National Executive Committee, was a complete abuse of power.
Ikem, therefore, urged the teeming supporters to remain law-abiding, as the party would not allow its enemies to use the NWC instrumentality to derail the party’s progress in the state.