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Wike’s Involvement In APC Govt, Plot To Collapse PDP –Ologbondiyan

Kola Ologbondiyan is a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview, he speaks on the crisis in the main opposition party, and how the ruling party has made deliberate efforts to cause disunity in the party, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

There seems to be no end in sight to on matter between Senator Anyanwu and Sunday Ude Okoye with the chaos, and protest over the position of the National Secretary of the PDP. There is another issue, which is third-party interference over the belief that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is trying to destabilise the PDP. Is it the APC destabilising the PDP or they’re just PDP issues?

Legitimately and constitutionally, Sunday Ude Okoye is the person that is recognised by the party and until it says otherwise, I think that is the position.

On the issue of external assault from the APC or the principals in the APC; you will recall that in every situation in which we have discussed PDP, I’ve always made the position known that there are attempts to reduce the PDP to a branch or an arm of the APC.

The involvement of a former presidential aspirant on the platform of the party and the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, in the government of the APC has created a road that can lead to the collapse of the PDP.

If you agree with Debo Ologunagba, the PDP National Publicity Secretary that there might be some external influences in the crisis that the PDP is currently engulfed in, are you saying that there are no issues within the party that ought to be addressed, and perhaps the issues within the party have given room for external influence to have impact in the party?

Whichever way you look at it, I think the issue is about the saying that if there is no crack on the wall, the lizard cannot come in.

So, there are issues in the party and how much these issues are managed is on one side and how external influences come into them to finally reduce the party to nothing is also there, and that is the situation that the party is facing even as we speak. Yes, there are issues within the party.

For instance, the case of the national chairman, the North Central believes that the position should return to the zone. Umar Damagum is from the North-East and he is occupying the position, and no matter how long he continues to stay there, he is staying there illegitimately.

That’s an issue in the party. Senator Sam Anyanwu contested for governorship in Imo State, and the South-East people said that since he had gone for governorship, they were replacing him with Ude Okoye.

The issue has gone into judicial gymnastics, and on December 20, Ude Okoye got a judgement from the Court of Appeal in Enugu recognising him as the national secretary. He has published his judgement.

He brought it out before the world, that this is the judgement validating him as the national secretary of the party. Senator Sam Anyanwu has come out to say that he has got a stay of execution from wherever, stating that Ude Okoye cannot resume. These are issues in the party but what we are saying is how can the executive allow the opposition to come and cause problems in the party?

If you look at the whole melee, you will see that all these things are being generated to make sure that the party doesn’t have its cohesion

These are the issues that ordinarily the National Working Committee of the party, which manages the day-to-day affairs of the party should be able to go into a meeting and come out and say, ‘look, going by the decision of the court,’ which they have done already by recognising Ude Okoye.

If there is a superior court order again, then they can say, ‘come back since the new court order doesn’t favour Ude Okoye, it’s Sam Anyanwu.’ It should not be people going into the party’s secretariat with brigandage. I think that’s not proper.

It looks like the PDP is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome, this new year 2025, we see a recurrence of the same issues. What will it take for the PDP to overcome the fact that the ambition of a few individuals has left the party in tatters, when it should be preparing for 2027?

I think the question is very troubling. I’m saying it’s troubling because of the way and manner in which the issues are being taken, they’re not in conformity with the precedents, history and constitutionality of the PDP.

Take the issue of the acting national chairman, he became acting national chairman because section 47 (6) of the constitution says that you can because there was a vacuum. It also says that when the people bring forth a replacement, you’ll vacate but the whole thing has been messed up in a manner that you don’t even know where to take off from.

Look at the issue of the national secretary, 85 per cent of the people of the South-East will tell you that they’ve nominated Sunday Ude Okoye and they’ve gotten a court judgement to back it up. But what do you find? As I said earlier, judicial gymnastics have thrown things anyhow and at the end of the day, these issues are not resolved. Somebody asked if these things are flying in the wings of aspirations.

If you say that Senator Sam Anyanwu has the support of or the interest of Nyesom Wike, who are we going to say the support of Ude Okoye is planted upon? Sometimes, if you look at the whole melee, you will see that all these things are being generated to make sure that the party doesn’t have its cohesion.

It is a grand design to ensure that PDP doesn’t have its unity, so that the people who are in government and the party in government will be able to suppress other opposition parties in a manner that they’ll be reduced to e level of just contesting election at the sub-national and they won’t be able to participate in a national election. This is my assessment of the situation.

The crisis within the PDP seems to be deepening, you have one person who has one leg inside and one leg outside, the NWC is fighting, and the Board of Trustees (BoT) says it is trying to keep the crisis within the family. I don’t know to what extent the BoT is doing that, there are speculations that some of your governors are planning to defect to the APC, and the chairman of the PDP in Rivers State has just been removed. Anywhere you look, the party looks like it is imploding. Do you have any optimism that the PDP will survive?

It all depends on how the party works itself out and I’m happy that you mentioned the fact that the National Working Committee will be able to put itself together and provide the required leadership and that is where all these issues come in.

What is the disposition of the National Working Committee; those who have been elected to run the affairs of the party?

Are they prepared to provide the required leadership? If you ask me, I can’t say yes or no because as we speak it appears the acting chairman, ousted national secretary, and national organising secretary are on one stream.

The other members are on another stream in respect of the situation occurring in the party, but the days and weeks ahead look very promising.

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