The state secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, David Iro, has been suspended with immediate effect. He was removed from his position after making unguarded statements during a meeting of the party’s SWC held in Umuahia. In a statement issued Wednesday, the party said that Iro’s suspension was due to his indiscipline and unguarded statements.
A statement signed by the party’s Vice Chairman, Elder Abraham Amah, and the Chairman for Abia North, stated that Iro violated the party’s rules and regulations. It also stated that he should be suspended with effect from May 10, 2022. According to the statement, the actions of the state secretary had embarrassed the party.
This action is coming barely 72 hours after Iro claimed in an interview with journalists that the party’s delegates congress had not been conducted. He contradicted the claims made by the governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, who had posted a video congratulating the delegates.
He further claimed that the members of the panel dispatched by the party’s National Secretariat had not been formally introduced to the party’s state leadership.
Meanwhile, the PDP stated in its statement announcing the Secretary’s suspension that the procedure of selecting delegates for the party’s primaries had not been completed, therefore vindicating the suspended party Scribe.
An insider told Vanguard how the voting occurred at the State Working Committee, SWC, meeting where the decision to suspend the Secretary was made.
After hearing the Secretary’s justification over the abovementioned press interview, a motion for his suspension was moved and put to a vote, according to the source who requested anonymity.
According to the source, out of the 14-member SWC, only four voted in favour of his suspension while two voted against.”
Protests and counter protests have trailed the conduct of the party’s three-man delegate congress with some aggrieved party members calling for the sack of the State Chairman, Rt.
Former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, had also expressed displeasure over the decision of the party to simultaneously zone its governorship ticket in 2023 to Abia Central and Abia North senatorial zones, a move he alleged was a ploy to actualise the much-rumoured Ngwa self succession agenda.
He warned that PDP might lose Abia in 2023 if the party gave its ticket to an Ngwa against the prevailing power arrangement in the state.
Meanwhile, former Chairman of PDP in the state, Senator Emma Nwaka, has expressed worry over the recent developments in the party which he said, could badly affect the fortunes of the party in the 2023 polls.
Nwaka who said people had been asking him why he had remained quiet over the growing tension in the party, explained that he had been trying to find solution to the “zoning-induced in-fighting through the back channel”.
He, therefore, appealed for a cease fire and peace to avoid the party playing into the waiting hands of the opposition.
Senator Nwaka who is also seeking the Governorship ticket of the party said he felt sad that the party he nurtured was engrossed in in-house fighting.
