Elder statesman Edwin Clark asks Damagum to resign as PDP acting chairman

Elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark has written an open letter the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Amb. Umar Ililya Damagum, asking him to resign. 

Clark, a prominent Ijaw leader, alleged that Damgum is working and taking instructions from the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

The former Federal Commissioner for Information, described last week’s National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP as a charade and a proof of Wike’s stranglehold on the party.

Part of the letter read: “Firstly, let me apologise should this letter cause you any form of embarrassment because we have never met nor spoken to each other before. However, I have followed your activities since you took over as the Acting National Chairman of the PDP.

”I issued a press release on the eve of the just concluded NEC meeting of your party, which had not been held for a very long time, that except some courageous and bold actions are taken at the meeting, the party will collapse.

“Unfortunately, my sense of foreboding was confirmed by the actions and inactions of the PDP NEC during the meeting, because at the long-awaited meeting, there was a deliberate attempt to avoid the very serious issues plaguing the party including those expressed by various stakeholders, such as the sixty (60) Members of the House of Representatives.

“The NEC showed obvious weakness by allowing Mr. Nyesom Wike to bamboozle everyone in the meeting. No one was ready to speak truth to power. Therefore, emphasis was put on reconciliation committee and not on the disciplinary committee which was earlier set up under the chairmanship of His Excellency, Emmanuel Udom, immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State.

“It was therefore, unfortunately, Wike’s day, and a confirmation of Wike’s earlier claim that PDP approved his joining President Tinubu’s cabinet as Minister. One wonders the sincerity of the PDP when they criticise and condemn some of the policies of the government at the centre, when their “strong man and financier” Nyesome Wike is a major player in the government of President Tinubu. Especially, when viewed against the back drop of his leading the 7-man Caretaker Committee of the APC in Rivers State, led by his nominee, Mr. Tony Okocha.

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“To imagine that the NEC and the NWC of the party, turned blind eye to all that is happening in the PDP in Rivers State, because it is said you have a paymaster controlling you, is unbelievable. This is a clarion call on you, Mr. Acting National Chairman, to either sit up, or do the needful by resigning from the position, so that the party does not collapse on you.”