“People Are Coming In Droves Into Imo PDP Because The Person Blocking Them Has Left” – Anyanwu (Sam Daddy) On Ihedioha’s Resignation

By Charles Igbo

The National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Samuel Anyanwu, has broken his silence on the resignation of the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, from the Party.

Ihedioha, a political “foe” of Anyanwu, resigned from the PDP last week. Until his resignation, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s – declared-winner of the 2019 Imo Governorship Election,  removed by the Supreme Court after seven months in office, was the engine room and face of the Party in the State. He was, without doubt, the foremost Leader of the PDP in Imo State.

It is no wonder, then, that his resignation triggered an unprecedented run in the Party. It caused the resignation of hundreds of Party members from the Party, including high profile members, on a scale never witnessed anywhere before in the history of political party decampments in Nigeria.

Not a few people are of the impression that Ihedioha’s resignation has marked the collapse of the PDP in the State. Ihedioha himself, in an interview on Arise Television, sees the mass resignations after he quit the Party, as a mark of the confidence in his leadership.

But Anyanwu differs. In his first known reaction to the resignations of members from the PDP in his State, and even in his Local Government Area, he said contrary to the belief that Ihedioha’s resignation triggered mass resignations from the party, it has opened the flood gate for new members. He claimed that since Ihedioha’s resignation “People are coming into the Party in droves now, probably because they believe that the person that has been blocking them has left.” In other words, Anyanwu, who spoke during a recent visit to a former Governor of old Anambra State, and now a Board of Trustees member, Chief Jim Nwobodo, means that Ihedioha was a stumbling block that prevented people from being PDP members.

Anyanwu, also, spoke on the  number of efforts made to remove him from office as the National Secretary of the PDP just because he aspired to, and emerged as the Governorship candidate of the Party after Ihedioha’s withdrawal from the race.

Anyanwu: “ I am still the National Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party. The Constitution of our party is very clear and explicit on my position. I was elected through the convention and every Zone and State has their own position as inscribed in our constitution.”

He dismissed the crisis rocking the PDP as nothing exclusive to it as other Political Parties have their own shares of squabbles.

“On the crisis in our party, no Political Party is immune from it. The ruling APC, Labour party, and even the NNPP all have their own share of the trouble. As far as I’m concerned, PDP is the only party that has the mechanism of solving internal disputes and that we’ve put into action and I can assure you that we will come out stronger. People didn’t expect that we will come out of the last National Executive Council meeting unscathed and a lot of prophets of doom were disappointed as the NEC meeting went on very peacefully”, he said.

He, also dismissed Ihedioha’s resignation from the Party as not unprecedented, citing former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s resignation from the Party as an example, as well as that of the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

He said: “Party is a vehicle and it’s a matter of choice. PDP is an organic organization. The former President of this country, Olusegun Obasanjo, tore his card as a member of the PDP on national television.  The party never died; our last presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 2015, left the party with seven Governors and PDP never died, and he later came back to the party. If you think you are not comfortable where you are and decide to go to another place, if you don’t find peace there, you’ll come back.

“As far as Imo state is concerned, the Party shouldn’t revolve around someone. Party is an organization where everybody has right to come in and leave as he/she wants. So, it has nothing to do with the crisis. People are coming into the party in droves now, probably because they believe that the person that has been blocking them has left. If he (Ihedioha) has chosen to go to another political party to pursue his ambition, the party will wish him well, that’s how PDP operates.

“On 2027 election, we’re searching for a credible candidate. I agree with you that we made mistake in the last election but that’s behind us but it’s not within my power to speak on what the party will do about zoning in the coming election.”