In what could be termed his first major official outing, the acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, on Thursday, led members of his National Working Committee to a closed-door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Aso Villa.
The meeting came less than 24 hours after Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu resigned as the party’s chairman and Secondus took over in acting capacity.
The acting chairman informed State House correspondents after the meeting that members of the NWC decided to interact with President Jonathan, who is the party’s national leader on the latest developments in the party and the way forward.
He added that with Mu’azu’s exit, the new leadership would sit back and “re-organise and re-invent” the party.
Secondus assured party members and other stakeholders that the PDP remained intact with no problem threatening its continued existence.
He, however, described the calls by some individuals that all NWC members should resign the same way Mu’azu did as unconstitutional.
He said, “You know that (call for the resignation of NWC members) is not right, it is unconstitutional because the chairman did that voluntarily and the BoT Chairman also did that voluntarily.
“Some of the other offices have tenures. At the end of our tenure, if we are re-elected, fine, if not, fine. That is the right thing to do.
“There is no reason for us to resign because we have worked hard”.
With Mu’azu and the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih’s resignation coming in quick succession, Secondus said it was normal and shouldn’t be interpreted that they were both forced to throw in the towel.
Muazu had resigned as the party national chairman on Thursday on health grounds.
A few hours after his resignation, Anenih also resigned, saying he wanted to give President Jonathan, who would be handing over power on May 29, the opportunity of taking over as the party’s BoT chairman.
“Sometimes, it happens that way. Nobody forced them to go”, the acting national chairman said.
