The embattled Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Umar Damagum, yesterday alleged mischief by some ‘highly-placed persons’ to force him out of office.
Damagum said the plot entailed a rumour that he had resigned.
He denied quitting and warned the brains behind the rumour to desist.
Damagum, in a statement by his aide Nuru Shehu Jos, said “the formless authors of the fake news had attributed their source of information as a television station, which is equally false.”
He cautioned “these mischief makers to desist forthwith from spreading fake news to malign a dedicated and hardworking Acting National Chairman.”
He said the party’s constitution guarantees the chairman a four-year tenure.
“To set the records straight, the Acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagun, has not resigned from his office; the PDP constitution affords the National Chairman a term of four years in office, in the first instance.
“We assert that this malicious content against Ambassador Damagun is fake, defamatory and a height of criminality.
“We therefore call on all members of the PDP, including party elders, stakeholders, all youth and women groups, to disregard the fake news.”
Damagum, who took over as acting national chairman following the exit of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu in the aftermath of the PDP’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election, has been under intense pressure to leave.
In October last year, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja restrained the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) from removing him as acting national chair.
In a judgment delivered via Zoom, Justice Peter Lifu, ordered that aside Damagum, no other person must be recognised as the PDP acting national chair until the party’s convention scheduled for December 2025.
Lifu held that party members are bound by Articles 42, 47 and 67 of PDP’s constitution which stipulates that national officers of the party can only be elected during the party’s national convention.
Party sources say Damagum’s influence in the party appears threatened following the Supreme Court’s recent dismissal of the stay of execution sought by Samuel Anyanwu on a Court of Appeal’s verdict voiding his retention as National Secretary.
Anyanwu was, until now, Damagum’s right hand man in running the PDP National Secretariat.
Both are understood to be allies of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and are resented by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and majority of state governors elected on the platform of the party.
Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye, who is being backed by the PDP Governors Forum and the BoT as Anyanwu’s replacement is treading cautiously in the performance of the duties of national secretary for legal reasons.
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja had on February 24, 2025 barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from taking any step relating to the removal of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as PDP National Secretary.
Consequently, Udeh-Okoye has refrained from appending his signature to any critical document or correspondence emanating from the PDP.
His first public outing and presence at the high table during the inauguration of PDP’s South-South Caretaker Committee last Thursday speaks volumes about his endorsement by the PDP Governors’ Forum and the BoT.
Also last week, the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) met in Abuja to discuss the much-postponed meeting of the party’s highest decision-making organ, the National Executive Committee (NEC).
A party source said: “This time, there is an agenda for PDP NEC to consider firm decisions that may lead to the invalidation of some state congress results won by purported Wike loyalists and Kogi State is among the likeliest cases.
“Atiku’s ally, High Chief Tom Ikimi’s National Disciplinary Committee has also tabled a March 10 letter recommending the expulsion of Senator Samuel Anyanwu, solely based on the petition submitted by one Hon Nurudeen Afolabi Adekambi from Ogun State on behalf of a group identified as Young Generation Caucus.”
While Hon Udeh-Okoye has tactically refrained from signing PDP’s correspondence with INEC as well as other documents related to the forthcoming zonal congresses/elections, governorship aspirants for the Anambra governorship race have held back for fear of being caught up in the ongoing legal tussle as the Supreme Court’s decision on the rightful claimant of the position of National Secretary may invalidate any process done under the secretarial seal of whoever loses the case.
A strong loyalist of Wike in the House of Representatives dismissed ongoing efforts to weaken Wike’s hold on Rivers State, the South-South zone and at the national level.
He said: “Several people, including Senator Anyanwu, are being quiet for strategic reasons, and we know that some people have to, at least, temporarily justify what they had been ‘mobilised’ to do.
“We know how some PDP governors mounted pressure on Damagum, pressure came from the only governor from the South East, one governor from the South West and the South-South governors who are demonstrating loyalty to one of them, Fubara, who may inevitably be on the way towards his impeachment hearing.
“Let them all enjoy it while it lasts but note that Udeh-Okoye who acknowledged during Thursday’s inauguration of their South-South caretakers that he was at least a National Secretary for that day will not dare sign any official PDP document going to INEC and also, only two or three persons have bothered to pick PDP governorship nomination forms that the secretaryship tussle may invalidate.
“The Wike factor remains very strong in Rivers state, no caretaker committee can uproot it in the South-South and at the national level, a Supreme Court judgment in favour of Anyanwu will send them back into their conspiracy enclaves; we know that they are trying to move fast because they know that Senator Anyanwu will likely prove them wrong at the Supreme Court very soon,” he said.
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