ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River State has declared that its scheduled congress on September 27 will hold despite a postponement announced by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Speaking with journalists in Calabar on Thursday, Venatius Ikem, Chairman of the State Working Committee (SWC), dismissed the postponement, stressing that preparations for the congress were already concluded.
The PDP had earlier announced the dissolution of the SWC before the end of its tenure and directed the South-South Zonal Caretaker Committee to oversee the state chapter until a new leadership emerged.
It explained that the move was necessary to avoid a leadership vacuum since the SWC’s tenure had allegedly expired.
But Ikem strongly refuted the claim, saying the SWC’s tenure remains valid until September 29, two days after the congress.
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He accused unnamed interests of attempting to destabilise the party in the state to pave the way for preferred candidates.
“The National Working Committee (NWC) is not the National Executive Committee (NEC) of which I am a member. The NEC of the party fixed that date, September 27, for the congress, and the only five or so persons of the NWC that are here cannot, on their social media platform, begin to churn out ridiculous rules,” Ikem said.
“So, they cannot; they have no moral authority, no legal authority, no constitutional authority, to go behind NEC to take such a decision,” he added.
He acknowledged that the NWC can sometimes act on behalf of the NEC but maintained this was not one of such situations.
Ikem insisted the congress would proceed as scheduled, adding that all logistics were already in place. He also emphasised that the NEC or NWC had no powers to directly organise a state congress.
“The state congress will be organised by the state chapter at its level, while the committee from the national secretariat will only monitor it,” he clarified.