Members of the Anambra State Executive Council (SEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were Monday barred from entering the party’s secretariat for a scheduled meeting by a detachment of stern-looking policemen from the Police headquarters in Awka.

The party officials, who converged in the Anambra State capital from the various local government areas of the state, arrived the party secretariat only to behold the human barricade.

PDP national leadership had last week announced the dissolution of the party’s caretaker committees in some states, including Anambra.

However, some members of the state executive committee, who were barred from entering the party premises, described the dissolution as illegal because, according to them, they emerged through properly conducted congresses at the ward, local government and state levels.

Although the state chairman of the party, Prince Kenneth Emeakayi was not among the members of the party executive present for the meeting, his deputy, Mr. Uchenna Ofokansi said they were not aware of the Police presence until they got to the secretariat, saying that they had no other option than to call off the meeting.

He said: “We had asked the Police why we should not hold our meeting or if there was any petition from anywhere. But their leader told us that the order came from above and this made us to be confused.

“We don’t know about the dissolution of our state executive because Senator Stella Oduah and Mr. Chuka Onyema, who are the current leaders of the party in the state in the absence of a Governor, did not know about the purported dissolution. We have not been communicated that we have been dissolved either.

“Senator Ben Obi is the Secretary of the PDP National Caretaker Committee and he was elected Anambra State delegate to the Port Harcourt convention and that is why he is still retaining his office. Our leaders at the National Assembly are aware of the meeting we had come here to hold.

“Granted that the national leadership of PDP can dissolve the state executive committee, they should tell us the reason because we were elected officers like in other states. We conducted the ward, local government and state congresses from where we emerged. The issue is, assuming there was dissolution, do they have the power to do that?

“We have just four months to the governorship election and they are talking of dissolution of the state executive when there are no more factions in the party.

“If they are still talking of factions in PDP, they should be reminded that it is the same faction that elected Senator Obi as a delegate in Port Harcourt last year. If he is there in Abuja and we are dissolved, it means that his stay at the PDP national headquarters is illegal because we elected him to represent us.

“What time do we have to conduct the election?"

While arguing that PDP could not afford to face another crisis with only four months to the election, Ofokansi called on the national leadership of party to look into the matter and resolve it.

The state PDP however vowed to challenge the purported dissolution legally.

As at the time of filing the report, it was not yet clear who gave the order for the party secretariat to be cordoned off while the leader of the squad, Superintendent William Odumu declined comment.

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