•Throw weight behind Ude-Okoye as National Secretary

By CHARLES IWUOHA

A group in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) known as the Conference of Professionals (CP-PDP), has called for the expulsion of Minister of federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Nyesome Wike, from the party without further delay.

It made the demand via a statement made available to News Express on Sunday, signed by its Protem National Coordinator, Barrister Obinna Nwachukwu. CP-PDP said it took the stand after a review of the issues in the party, as well as the recent Supreme Court judgement.

It said It welcomed the judgement of the apex court which decisively affirmed the supremacy of political parties in the management of their internal affairs, including determination of its officials, membership and even nomination of candidates for election among others, to which the courts have no jurisdiction.

“The Conference notes that the judgment has further strengthened the nation’s democracy by affirming the powers of political parties to internally determine their structures and operations in compliance with the provisions of their Constitutions and Guidelines.

“Against this backdrop, the Conference stands with the stated position of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP in recognizing Rt. Hon. SKE Udeh-Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP, Okoye having emerged through the internal democratic processes in line with provisions of the PDP Constitution.

“The Conference urges Rt. Hon. Udeh-Okoye to brace up and join hands with other members of the NWC to further stabilize the PDP by instilling discipline, reconciliations, unity of purpose and strengthening our party’s structure across the country for the task ahead.

“The Conference again urges the leadership of the PDP to sanitize the party by immediately expelling the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, from the party,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the CP-PDP expressed shock and dismay over what it called “the manipulative and overbearing action of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led leadership of the National Assembly in approving the unconstitutional suspension of a democratically elected governor and the legislature of a state by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in violation of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”

It described the action of the APC-led leadership of the National Assembly as a total betrayal of public trust and demanded the immediate resignation of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“The CP-PDP urges Nigerians to defend the nation’s democracy by speaking out against the constitutional violations by the APC,” the statement concluded.