In Imo State, seven members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) State Working Committee have submitted their resignations, citing concerns and accusations against Senator Sam Anyanwu, the PDP governorship candidate.
Led by Martin Ejiogu, the state Deputy Chairman, the dissatisfied members accused Senator Anyanwu of various misconducts, including high-handedness, threats to their lives, intimidation, and a lack of focus.
During a press conference held in Owerri, the state capital, the former members of the State Working Committee expressed their grievances. They claimed that Senator Anyanwu, since assuming the position of National Secretary of the Party, has consistently misused his powers to target and undermine the state working committee.
The members that left the party include Ray Emeana, the party’s secretary; Greg Nwadike, the youth leader; Martin Ejiogu, the deputy state chairman; Maria Mbakwe, the state woman leader; Josiah Eze, the State Treasurer; and Chibuisi Obido, the State Vice Chairman for the Orlu Zone.
The members alleged that Senator Anyanwu sponsored his loyalists to file baseless petitions against the committee at the national headquarters, while constantly threatening to dissolve the state working committee in Imo State.
Collins Opurozor, who formerly served as the state publicity secretary of the party, spoke on behalf of the resigning members. He attributed the recent challenges faced by the party in the state to Senator Anyanwu’s actions.
Opurozor labelled Senator Anyanwu’s emergence as the PDP governorship candidate in Imo State as a severe injustice and imposition orchestrated by the Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee.
Opurozor in his statement said: “Since 2020 when this Working Committee took over the administrative cockpit of the PDP in Imo State, we have evolved a tradition of being upfront with you as members of the fourth estate of the realm about all issues that trouble our dear state.”
“We have, through such interactions, inspired faith in a better Imo realised through good governance and democratic norms.
“Today, unfortunately, is not for such engagements. In unequivocal terms, we announce to you that the PDP in Imo State has now been damaged beyond redemption by the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu (Samdadday), and the Party is, at last, moving irreversibly to its terminus.
“It is necessary we remind you that in the last three years, this Working Committee has built a very strong, formidable and enviable PDP in Imo State. To enable the Party to realise its promise of being a truly democratic entity, we envisioned the need to expand the internal democratic space by forming nearly five thousand chapters across all the polling units in the State. We took the Party to the people, and that made us the darling of the Imo people. We accomplished this task despite our lean resources as an opposition. No other political party has attained this feat in Nigeria.
“More so, we institutionalised the culture of accountability in party administration and demonstrated a readiness to govern and reform Imo.
“But, since Senator Anyanwu became the National Secretary of the Party, he has never relented in deploying the powers of his office to fight members of this Working Committee and intimidate even ordinary members of the Party. Endless strife, mindless wars and erosion of all democratic values and principles have now defined and defiled Imo PDP.
“Day after day, Senator Anyanwu still sponsors his very few loyalists to cook up puerile petitions against us and flood the National Secretariat of the Party with such inanities. On the basis of those contrivances, he has continued to threaten to dissolve the Party in Imo State, even after we have defeated him at the Supreme Court. Samdadday has remained unrelenting and unrepentant in his destructive agenda.
“It is heartbreaking to inform you that some of us in the State Working Committee have severally escaped assassination attempts because of the wicked lies which our National Secretary sold to his violent supporters, that we misappropriated Party funds.
“Yet, it was he, Senator Anyanwu, that sent his aides from Abuja to steal the materials for last year’s congresses of the Party, thereby creating a stalemate that gulped all our resources through multiple and controversial exercises and the appeasement of multiple stakeholders so as to save the Party from not fielding candidates for the 2023 elections.”
