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There is palpable tension within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the party’s acting national chairman, Umar Damagum, met with state chairmen ahead of next week’s opposition National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. .
The meeting was held yesterday at the PDP National Secretariat in Abuja and was attended by state chairmen of the party from across the country.
However, Damagum’s claim that he spoke before the closed session and that the meeting was aimed at mobilizing state chairmen to permanently hold his post as acting national chair is false. revealed.
With the NEC meeting scheduled for November 28th expected to decide on the party’s leadership position, tensions are rising within the opposition over Damagum’s continued position as acting national chairman.
Nevertheless, the acting national chairperson said the meeting was simply to interact with the state chairs.
He said: “Mrs. Commanders of the States, this is not an unusual meeting. We have had meetings like this before. Let me be clear on the record that this is not the first time. Please note that this meeting is for dialogue with state chairmen and others.
“As you can see from the preamble, more than half of the state chairs who are here are brand new so we can get to know ourselves and also discuss other things like upcoming regional meetings.
“I have nothing to do with NEC or anything like that, as implied on social media, you can read that.
“If I am correct, I have never met any of your chairs since you were invited until I came to this hall. So, for the record, I would like to set the record straight. I don’t think so.
“The matter of NEC is completely within the purview of the National Working Committee (NWC) and the Chairman. Therefore, we are not calling the Chairman here to insinuate anything.
“For the record, this is a regular interactive session to welcome our new president who has just joined us, get to know us, and further discuss our ongoing zone meetings. As you can see, there is already a form in place for zone meetings.
Imo State PDP Chairman Austin Nwachukwu, who is also the Interim Chairman of the PDP Chairman Forum, told reporters after the social gathering that the event was a public awareness meeting.
He said the meeting was essential to foster unity among the chairs, as more than half of the chairs in attendance were newly elected.
“The NWC has deemed it appropriate to bring us all together in Abuja so that we can get to know each other. It is essentially about the NWC and its terms still remaining and the NWC whose term expires next year. To get to know the people better,” Nwachukwu said.
