ENUGU: WE CAN'T LEAVE PDP FOR NWODO – CHIME'S GROUP
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) group loyal to Governor Sullivan Chime in the ongoing internal crisis rocking the Enugu chapter of the PDP has vowed that no matter the tactics adopted by the national chairman and his supporters in the lingering face-off, the governor and those loyal to him cannot leave the party for any reason.
Addressing newsmen in Enugu yesterday, former national auditor of the party Mr. Ray Nnaji said; 'If the aim of the Nwodo's group is for the governor to run to another party, or to get frustrated to the point of dumping the PDP, then they are making a very big mistake because we are the owners and founders of the party.
'We formed and nurtured this party, and these people causing the trouble in the party in the state are mere returnees; they had left the party in the past and just returned, but we have remained here all along so we cannot abandon the party for them.'
Nnaji urged the Nwodo's group to accept the 50-50 harmonisation, which President Goodluck Jonathan recommended.
'The trouble they are breeding in the state is unnecessary; if they have any personal problem with the governor they should settle with him and allow the party in the state to be. 'Nobody is afraid of fresh congress in the state but because the governor is a peaceful man who wanted to avoid the problems that could result from such exercise in the state he opted for a peaceful resolution. He is not weak; but he will not want a replication of what happened in Oyo where people were killed. He is a peaceful man but if he is pushed to the wall he will fight back; nobody has a monopoly for violence.'
Nnaji, who was reacting to the recent refusal of an Enugu High Court to grant an ex-parte order restraining Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo from parading himself as national chairman of the PDP as sought by 15 plaintiffs represented by Tony Ani, said it was wrong for anybody to associate the governor with the application.
Said he: 'I am deeply concerned with the association of the suit to Governor Chime just because of the fact that there has been existing crisis, and any suit that has semblance will be traced back to the governor; it is unfortunate and unfair to him.'
The former national auditor of the PDP noted that after the meeting with the president on December 28, which was attended by former Board of Trustee (BoT) chairman Tony Anenih, members of the NWC, and other party stakeholders, the governor, based on the understanding reached at that meeting, ordered that all suits relating to the crisis be withdrawn.
He recalled that the president in a communiqué after the meeting noted that the Enugu problem could not be solved through a fresh congress but through harmonizing of the political structure of the state and that a harmonization committee be set up.