Ebonyi PDP Faction Calls for Arrest, Prosecution of Invaders of Party’s Secretariat
The factional Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, Mr. Onyekachi Nwebonyi, has called on security agencies to arrest and prosecute all those involved in the foiled attempt to attack the party’s secretariat in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
It was alleged that some youths loyal to the factional Chairman, Mr. Fred Udeogu, reportedly invaded the party’s office at the early hours of Monday in a bid to take over the office from Nwebonyi.
The Nwebonyi led executive of the party was alleged to have been dissolved by the National Working Committee of the PDP on alleged anti-party activities after the defection of the Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. David Umahi, to the All Progressives Congress.
However, during a press briefing in Abakaliki, Nwebonyi alleged that his factional counterpart, Udeogu and other suspended members of the PDP in the state were plotting to create crisis in the party.
He said: “Ebonyians and the security agencies should note with apprehension the incessant and repeated calls for crisis and upheavals in the state by the Udeogu led guerillas, their utterances regarding the Effium crisis, and their several attempts to cause breach of public peace.
“For the records, the PDP as an opposition party in Ebonyi State, is concerned with strategies to sustain public trust respecting future elections and as such, has no time to indulge in frivolities or join issues with hooligans who have no locus standi. The party is formidable and is in no way deterred by the defection of the governor. Neither are we distracted by the shenanigans of the suspended members of our own party who have become fugitives in Abuja.
“I, therefore, call on the police to arrest and prosecute all those who were involved in the attempt to attack the PDP secretariat, and all those making inflammatory statements and social media posts regarding the Effium crisis.”
The embattled chairman described as ridiculous the injunction granted by a Federal High Court in Abuja, noting that they cannot institute an action before a court of competent jurisdiction in another court of equal jurisdiction and obtain any valid order or injunction when the matter has not been withdrawn from the first court.
He further argued that as a duly elected executive, the National Working Committee led by Mr. Uche Seconds erred by the purported dissolution without recourse to other disciplinary procedures from the National Executive Committee of the PDP.
He noted that dissolving elected executives of the party in the state because the governor defected was an abuse of the constitution of the party and negates the principles of fair hearing.
He also declared that the state, local government and ward executives of the party in the state were still intact and further expressed satisfaction that the PDP still remained on ground in the state.
