In a move that has jolted the leadership of the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State, seven members of the State Working Committee (SWC) have resigned.
They also withdrew their memberships of the party.
Those who resigned from the party are the State Publicity Secretary, Collins Opuruozor, Secretary, Ray Emeana, Youth Leader, Greg Nwadike, Deputy State Chairman, Martin Ejiogu, Woman Leader, Maria Mbakwe, Josiah Eze, State Treasurer , and State Vice Chairman, Orlu Zone, Chibuisi Obido.
But the National Secretary and the Candidate of the party in the November Governorship election, Samuel Anyanwu, said it was nothing to worry about.
He said before now, the National Working Committee of the party had been inundated with allegations of embezzlement of party funds and anti-party activities against the SWC.
However, Collins Opurozor, who, until now was the state publicity secretary of party told newsmen at a briefing at the party’s secretariat in Owerri on Sunday, that the candidate of the party for the November 11 governorship election in the state, Samuel Anyanwu, does not have what it takes to govern the state.
The seven members were present at the press conference and concurred with Opurozor’s assertion.
But they did not disclose their next move.
Opurozor said, “Since 2020 when this Working Committee took over the administrative cockpit of the PDP in Imo State, we have evolved a tradition of being upfront with you as members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm about all issues that trouble our dear State. We have, through such interactions, inspired faith in a better Imo realized through good governance and democratic norms.
“Today, unfortunately, is not for such engagements. In unequivocal terms, we announce to you that the PDP in Imo State has now been damaged beyond redemption by the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu (Samdadday), and the Party is at last moving irreversibly to its terminus.
“It is necessary we remind you that in the last three years, this Working Committee has built a very strong, formidable and enviable PDP in Imo State. To enable the Party realize its promise of being a truly democratic entity, we envisioned the need to expand the internal democratic space by forming nearly five thousand chapters across all the polling units in the State. We took the Party to the people, and that made us the darling of Imo people. We accomplished this task despite our lean resources as an opposition. No other political party has attained this feat in Nigeria.
“More so, we institutionalized the culture of accountability in party administration, and demonstrated a readiness to govern and reform Imo.
“But, since Senator Anyanwu became the National Secretary of the Party, he has never relented in deploying the powers of his office to fight members of this Working Committee and intimidate even ordinary members of the Party. Endless strife, mindless wars and erosion of all democratic values and principles have now defined and defiled Imo PDP.
“Day after day, Senator Anyanwu still sponsors his very few loyalists to cook up puerile petitions against us and flood the National Secretariat of the Party with such inanities. On the basis of those contrivances, he has continued to threaten to dissolve the Party in Imo State, even after we have defeated him at the Supreme Court. Samdadday has remained unrelenting and unrepentant in his destructive agenda.
“It is heartbreaking to inform you that some of us in the State Working Committee have severally escaped assassination attempts because of the wicked lies which our National Secretary sold to his violent supporters, that we misappropriated Party funds.”
