Troubling is brewing in the Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the party’s stakeholders are planning a showdown against the party’s National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, popularly called ‘Sam Daddy’.

Feelers from the party in Imo State, especially the chieftains from the Orlu zone, maintained that all have not been well between the members and Senator Anyanwu, who they alleged, had been bruising and insulting them.

Already, prominent leaders of the party in the zone believe that Sam Daddy should be considered as “an unrepentant enemy”, who should deserve to be treated as “a dreaded political foe”, while an appropriate punishment might be meted out on him any time from now.

According to sources who claim anonymity, Sam Daddy, the party’s National Secretary, had been treating them with disrespect and had continued to injure the zone with what they consider “his series of reckless and greedy acts.

It was gathered from discreet investigation that the Orlu PDP leaders had resolved to repay the Ikeduru born politician in his own coin soon.

But, the source would not want to confirm if a vote of confidence is in the pipeline against the National Secretary, who many see as Governor Nyesom Wike’s stooge in the party’s National Executive.

The source said: “Let me say this to you. The position Sam Daddy is occupying today in the National Working Committee belongs to the Orlu zone.

“It is our position that he connived with his godfather from Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, to usurp. The slot for that national assignment was originally given to Orlu zone and we had settled for one of our sons.

“Wike and Sam Daddy struck from Port Harcourt and took it away from us. We wanted peace in the party, which was why we asked our people to remain calm and support him.

“Again, we nominated our father, leader and former governor, His Excellency, Chief Achike Udenwa, to serve in the 36-member presidential zoning committee of the party.

“Our party in the state ratified this nomination, and Chief Udenwa’s name was sent to Abuja by Imo PDP as the party’s nominee.

“Sam Daddy went behind and singlehandedly removed Chief Udenwa, and replaced him with his friend from Ihitte Uboma.

“This his friend eventually went to Port Harcourt and took some dollars and ganged up with some others and voted against the interest of Ndigbo in the party’s zoning arrangement.

“It was this betrayal of Igbo interest by Sam Daddy and his nominee that led to the exit of Peter Obi from the party.

“Coupled with verbal attack Obi received from Sam Daddy, after consulting with the National Working Committee, Peter Obi rightly concluded that the party had no place for his ideas.

“Sam Daddy was quoted to have said ‘The party has no place for somebody who only comes here to waste our time with economic theories he saw online’.

“Yet again during the party’s congresses, Sam Daddy sent his house boys to Imo state office of the party to loot result sheets belonging to most LGAs in Orlu zone. They were captured but not until they had tampered with the result sheets of two LGAs.

“It is regrettable that we, the leaders of the party from Orlu zone, met many months ago and voted to nominate one of our sons to replace the former Publicity Secretary who has left the party.

“That office belongs to Orlu zone and we chose whom we knew would give us the best. We formally communicated our resolution to the State Working Committee for ratification.

“Suddenly, Sam Daddy again connived with Hope Uzodimma to block our choice. Sam Daddy was insisting that he must be the one to tell Orlu people whom to choose. What an insult on Orlu people!

“We later learnt that Uzodimma is particularly interested in making sure our party never gets a competent spokesperson and he is using Sam Daddy to achieve that. This discovery has made us to send a new protest letter to the State Working Committee over the issue.

“When INEC published names of candidates, we also found out that Sam Daddy had dropped some names of duly elected candidates from Orlu zone and replaced them with some women whom he has inexplicable and obsessive interest in.

“This is a direct attack on Orlu zone, and our collective dignity has been threatened by this man’s continued assault. It is therefore time to stop him before he insults us further and destroys our party.”

However, when contacted, a prominent PDP leader in Imo State who also pleaded anonymity said he did not think that anybody would be contemplating passing vote of no confidence on Sen Samuel Anyanwu or anticipating his removal as National Secretary of PDP.

He stressed: “What rather is playing out is Anyanwu’s undue interference in the affairs and decisions of the people as to who to represent them in the coming elections. Orlu people are one of such persons whose rights to choice have been entrapped by Sam Daddy.

He however noted that the party’s political leaders in Imo State see the National Secretary “as exhibiting excessive and overzealous ambition”, while the also accuse him of “serving as Wike’s handy tool to take over the Imo PDP and install his puppets in order to subdue his perceived political rivals.”

However, political observers maintained that if the party stakeholders go ahead and pass no confidence vote against the National Secretary at this crucial time, the action might cause serious setback in the party at the national level.

This is because the party leaders had been trying to restore peace between its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, and Governor Nyesom Wike, who is said to be a good friend of Sam Daddy. (Saturday Independent)

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