South-East PDP lawmakers threaten convention boycott over woman leader position

A major crisis is brewing within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as lawmakers from the South-East region in the House of Representatives have threatened to boycott the party’s forthcoming national convention if the position of National Woman Leader is taken away from the zone.

Spokesperson of the South-East PDP Caucus in the House, Rep. Ikenga-Imo Ugochinyere, issued the warning in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, declaring that any attempt to deprive the South-East of the position would be viewed as a deliberate provocation.

Ugochinyere said the lawmakers will “issue a disclaimer against the convention” scheduled to hold on November 15 and 16 in Ibadan if it is confirmed that the party has zoned the position outside the region.

He cautioned that there is still time for the party to correct the situation before the screening of aspirants, should the rumours currently circulating prove to be true.

“We don’t want to see PDP suffer more setbacks; still, we will stick to our position at the Ibadan convention if, in the next few weeks, what we are hearing is confirmed,” Ugochinyere said. “If the position of National Woman Leader is not ceded expressly to Imo and an Imo person is allowed to emerge, we will boycott the convention.”

The lawmaker explained that the recent defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to the All Progressives Congress (APC) had nullified the earlier arrangement that allowed Enugu to produce the party’s Woman Leader.

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“Now that Gov. Mbah has left for the APC, the earlier arrangement for Enugu to produce a woman leader no longer holds, since Mbah’s woman leader nominee is also in the APC,” he said.

Ugochinyere maintained that the development presents the PDP with a chance to correct what he described as an injustice against Imo State, which he believes should rightfully produce the National Woman Leader.

He further alleged that a powerful faction within the party was behind a plot to move the position out of the South-East entirely.

“However, confirmed information is filtering in that some people is trying to move that woman leader position out of the South-East to the South-South,” he revealed.

The lawmaker warned that such a move could “provoke the entire South-East” and deepen the PDP’s internal divisions.

“This will compound the ongoing confusion in the PDP. If the remaining stakeholders from the South-East boycott the convention, that will bring the party into more crisis,” he added.

Appealing for intervention from the leadership of the party, Ugochinyere urged Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, one of the prominent PDP leaders in the South, to step in and ensure fairness.

“We don’t want to believe the information that one of the party’s leaders is plotting to cede the woman leader position to the South-South,” he said. “It would be very insulting to the South-East if a position that is there is taking away and given to the South-South.”

With the Ibadan convention barely weeks away, political observers warn that the brewing discontent in the South-East may test the PDP’s fragile unity as it struggles to rebuild ahead of future elections.

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