There are indications that the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State are at loggerheads as the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) takes over of the state chapter’s court cases against the opposition.
The NWC overrode the state chapter which had challenged the conduct of legislative primaries of some opposition parties in the state.
The cases which the Rivers State PDP instituted against the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Accord, Labour Party (LP) and others have advanced to the Court of Appeal, after the lower court delivered judgements in favour of the opposition parties.
When the appeal by the PDP was mentioned at the appellate court sitting in Port Harcourt earlier on Monday, one of the lawyers to the state PDP, Dike Udenna, informed the court that they had been debriefed from the matter in the light of a letter from the National Legal Adviser of the party.
In his stead, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Johnson Usman, announced his appearance as the new lawyer to the PDP.
Usman told the court that he was briefed by the PDP National Legal Adviser to take over the prosecution of the matter.
The three-man panel of the appeal court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh adjourned to Friday, February 3, 2023 for hearing.
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In his reaction, Wike accused some PDP national officers of being compromised by the opposition parties to discredit and terminate the litigation.
Speaking during the Rivers State PDP Campaign rally in Etche Local Government Area today, the governor alleged that the national officers, whom he did not name, of being involved in anti-party activities.
He added that he was not worried about ending the cases, but vowed to deal decisively with those involved, promising to pronounce his action against the said PDP officials on January 31.
Wike said he would not be intimidated to announce his action since the party leadership is allegedly already involved in anti-party activities.
The governor told the crowd of PDP supporters in Etche that the remaining few weeks is a fight to the finish.
