Politics
PDP Debunks Viral Post Dismissing Ali Odefa’s Replacement, Says it’s Worthless, Should Be Ignored
Obinna Uchendu Abakaliki
The Ebonyi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as worthless, fake and unverifiable a Facebook post made by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Debo Ologunagba dismissing the replacement of the expelled erstwhile National Vice Chairman of the PDP, Southeast zone, Mr. Ali Odefa.
It would be recall that Mr. Ali Odefa was initially suspended from the party on September 4, 2024 by the Executive Committee of Oguduokwor Ward, his ward.
The suspension was later upheld by the by the judgement of the Federal High Court, Abakaliki in suit No: FHC/AI/CS/182/2024. The judgement delivered on November 29, 2024 by Honourable Justice Hilary I. O. Oshomah according to the party was very explicit and explanatory of the subsequent status of Mr. Ali Odefa as far as Ebonyi State PDP is concerned.
In a statement by a Chieftain of the party, Mazi Moses Idika and made available to journalists in Abakaliki said the court explicitly ruled: “That by the combined provisions of Articles 57 (3), 58 and 59 (1) of the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (as amended in 2017), the 1st Defendant viz: Chief Ali Odefa cannot properly and lawfully continue to enjoy the rights and privileges accorded to members of the 2nd Defendant [PDP] and also continue to remain in office as the National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party for the Southeast zone of Nigeria.
The Court as said that Chief Odefa cannot exercise and enjoy the powers , rights, and perquisite benefits of the said office in any manner whatsoever during the lifetime of his suspension.”
“That by the combined provisions of Articles 57(3), 58 and 59(1) of the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (as amended in 2017), the 1st defendant viz: Chief Ali Odefa cannot validly hold or continue to hold the office of the National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party for the Southeast zone of Nigeria or any other office for that matter during the lifetime of his suspension.”
Mr. Idika maintained that consequent upon his earlier valid suspension, Mr. Odefa was later expelled from the party by the Oguduokwor Ward executives after the erstwhile NVC was found culpable by the party’s Ward disciplinary Committee.
“Upon the expulsion of Mr. Odefa, leaders of the PDP in Ebonyi State unanimously selected the Zonal Youth Leader of the party, Hon. Chidiebere Goodluck Egwu as a replacement to serve out the remaining weeks of Mr. Odefa’s tenure as the National Vice Chairman of the PDP Southeast Zone.
“The instruments nominating Hon. Chidiebere Goodluck Egwu to the appropriate authorities of the PDP National Working Committee, including the Acting National Chairman, the National Secretary among others has been communicated.
It is, therefore, very unfortunate that Mr. Ologunagba in his Facebook post hinged his statement on a section of the constitution of the PDP that the court has already declared a nullity for its inconsistency with the Grundnorm of law in Nigeria, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
Ologunagba in a Facebook post had said, “For emphasis, Section 57(7) of the Constitution of the PDP is clear in providing that “Notwithstanding any other provision relating to discipline, no Executive Committee at any level, except the National Executive Committee, shall entertain any question of discipline as may relate or concern a member of the National Executive Committee, Deputy Governors or members of the National Assembly.””
“Curiously, Mr. Ologunagba conveniently ignored and deliberately left out the fact that Honourable Justice Hilary I. O, Oshomah of the Federal High Court Abakaliki while ruling on Suit No: No: FHC/AI/CS/182/2024 in the matter between Hon. Ovuta Herbert Onyedikachi (Acting Chairman PDP, Oguduokwor, Onicha LGA), Hon. Emmanuel Uzor (Acting Chairman, PDP Onicha LGA), Hon. Mrs. Ede Uzoamaka (Acting Secretary PDP, Onicha LGA) VS Chief Ali Odefa; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has already laid to rest Article 57(7) of the PDP constitution in the graveyard of byelaw brigandage. The court has already ruled inter alia:
“That the provisions of Articles 57(7) and 59 (3) of the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party 2017 (as amended) are inconsistent with section 36 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria , 1999 (as amended)and therefore contrary to the legal principle viz; nemo judex in causa sus (no one should be a judge in his own case) and the time-honoured legal principle of natural justice, equity and good conscience.
“That the combined provisions of article 57 (3), 58 and 59 (1) of the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (as amended in 2017) and section 82 of the Electoral Act 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission cannot legally recognise, Conduct any official business, or relate with the 1st defendant viz: Chief Ali Odefa as the National Vice Chairman, South East Zone of the Peoples Democratic Party in any manner whatsoever during the tenure of his suspension as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party concerning the affairs of the 2nd defendant.”
Mazi Idika said, “It is, in actual fact, a contemptuous jaywalking on the part of Mr. Ologunagba to want to use his access to PDP official Facebook page to mislead the Nigerian public.
“Although, we are not surprised that Mr. Ologunagba has resorted to facebooking as the National Publicity Secretary of the party- he knows no better.
He noted that as the spokesman of the Nigeria’s main opposition political party, Mr. Ologunagba holds the undisputed prize as the laziest, most ineffective and unsuited for that exalted position that should ordinarily be the mouthpiece of the oppressed and misgoverned people of Nigeria.
“Ologunagba has never been seen confronting issues bedeviling the party or Nigerians. Mr. Ologunagba’s duckling approach to the management of the Image of our great party, the PDP is nothing but disastrous in the last few years and we are only grateful that his tenure is ending soon.
He urged the general public to discountenances the purported press statement adding that the party is aware that the exalted National Working Committee of the PDP has not met yet to deliberate the lawful replacement of the expelled erstwhile National Vice Chairman of the PDP in the Southeast zone.
“For the avoidance of doubt, these are legal and constitutional matters that a Facebook post of an officer of the PDP cannot and will never vitiate.
“Patriotic and committed members of the PDP in Ebonyi are aware that a Facebook post by an officer of the party in Abuja has no strength whatsoever to upturn the lawful decision of the good people of Ebonyi State and the decisions of members of the PDP in Ebonyi State.
By Okey Maduforo Awka
The former member that represented Anambra East and West Federal Constituency Chief Chinedu Obidigwe has denied a social media handle where he was said to have made Prof Charles Soludo the Governor of Anambra state.
Obidigwe further stated that the report did neither emanate from him or from his Media Aides urging the party not to believe what he called attempt at setting a negative agenda in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Obidigwe who is an Aspirant of the party for the Anambra East and West Federal Constituency accused enemies of the party being sponsored by opposition parties to creat problems .
According to the Media Assistant to Obidigwe Mr Dominic Okagbue in a statement;
“The attention of Hon. Chinedu Benjamin Obidigwe has been drawn to misleading and unfounded claims/propaganda being circulated on various social media platforms through a pseudo account, alleging that Obidigwe said he installed the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, as Governor in 2021”
“We wish to state, without any iota of equivocation, that such a statement never emanated from Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe. It is a desperate move by his political enemies who are bent on tarnishing his image as a tool and technique to advance their unmerited aspirations”
“Obidigwe, in 2021, was merely an electorate with just one vote. Even though he voted for the Governor and APGA, the question remains: can one man’s vote make a Governor?”
“Governor Soludo was elected and made Governor through the collective votes of Ndi Anambra, both in his first and second terms. We therefore call on the reading public to disregard such rumours and treat them as faceless and unfounded allegations geared towards the character assassination of an innocent man” he said.
A former Kano State Governor and leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Rabiu Kwankwaso, says northern political leaders conducted a deliberate assessment of potential allies before settling on Peter Obi as the most capable partner to prosecute the 2027 presidential campaign.
He dismissed concerns about a hidden power struggle between his camp and Obi’s.Politics
Kwankwaso made the disclosure in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, offering one of his most detailed accounts yet of how the North-Southeast political alliance within the NDC was formed.
“I looked around together with our leadership in the north to say, okay, who do we think is capable? Who can come and work together with us honestly so that we can move this country? Along the line, we realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it. That’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
Kwankwaso, a two-term former governor of Kano State and the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party in 2023, leads the Kwankwasiyya movement, a grassroots political force with deep loyalty across Kano and parts of northern Nigeria.Nigeria travel guide
He left the NNPP amid internal disputes before joining the NDC alongside Obi earlier this month.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, ran on the Labour Party platform in 2023 and drew massive youth-driven support across the South and urban centres, though he did not win.
Both men formally joined the NDC on Sunday, May 3, defecting from the crisis-hit African Democratic Congress.Politics
At the party’s national convention on Saturday in Abuja, Kwankwaso backed the NDC’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, describing it as a step toward fairness, healing and national cohesion.
Responding to a question about whether the alliance concealed a quiet rivalry between both camps, Kwankwaso argued that friction between principals and their deputies was a product of greed, not structural tension.
“The problem people are having, especially leaders, is that they are too greedy to the extent that they begin to have issues. There is so much to do. You don’t have to fight your deputy,” he said.
He said his record as a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, and later as governor of Kano State, showed that political partnerships could hold under pressure.
“I had an opportunity to work with my speaker and we worked very well. I was in Kano for eight years despite the difficulty of my then deputy governor. We were able to work for eight years amicably to the extent that I handed over to him,” he said.
Kwankwaso extended the argument beyond his personal experience, saying the same principle applied at the federal level.
In the Senate and other places, in the NDDC, we worked amicably with people. There is so much to be done and that’s why you have even ministers, other executives, advisors and so on. I don’t see from my experiences of the past why deputies or vice would fight with the president or governor,” he said.
He grounded the alliance in Nigerian political history, tracing a lineage of productive North-Southeast partnerships from the first republic to the present.Nigeria travel guide
“Right from the beginning, this sort of alliance has been in existence. Now we are going back to what Tafawa Balewa did during their time,” he said.
He also referenced the collaboration between former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and leaders of the NCNC, as well as that of former President Shehu Shagari and his vice president, Alex Ekwueme, in the second republic.
“So also in the second republic, immediately after the war, our leaders, Shagari and others, worked very closely with the southeast, with Alex Ekwueme as his vice president. They are our friends. We want to work together with them,” he said.Politics
Kwankwaso also noted that subsequent administrations had shifted power-sharing away from the South-East, a pattern he suggested the current alliance was correcting.
“There was a change during the third republic where for many obvious reasons an election was annulled and the government under the military decided to bring in Shonekan from the South-West.
Even after that, the military and other leaders worked together and brought in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West again. Even Bola Tinubu probably is a beneficiary of all that,” he said.
He was emphatic that the choice of Obi was not driven by regional sentiment alone.
“It wasn’t just because we are going to the South-West just because of the South-West. No. We realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it and that’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
The movement of both men into the NDC has triggered a wave of defections, with senators, House of Representatives members and political blocs aligned with their former coalition gravitating toward the new party, rapidly reshaping calculations ahead of the 2027 elections.
The alliance pairs Kwankwaso’s northern grassroots structure and disciplined voter mobilisation with Obi’s national youth engagement and urban electoral momentum, positioning the NDC as one of the main opposition platforms set to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027
Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has dismissed suggestions that his exit from the African Democratic Congress has created a damaging split in the opposition.
He said he and Atiku Abubakar may yet work together before the 2027 general election.
Kwankwaso spoke in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, responding to concerns that his move to the Nigeria Democratic Congress alongside Peter Obi had effectively divided the opposition into two competing blocs ahead of the polls.
“Now, we may still work together before the election. I personally, and I think even Obi himself, decided to leave ADC not because we are fighting with Atiku or anybody there. We decided to leave that party because we realised that there are some issues,” he said
He said the ADC was contending with three major unresolved problems that he believed would make it difficult for the party to field candidates, without specifying what those issues were.
“Whether they will be able to field candidates in that party or not is just a matter of time. It’s not like we had a primary election,” he said
The remarks come after Atiku recently claimed on Arise TV that Kwankwaso’s popularity was confined to Kano State and further divided there by Governor Abba Yusuf.
Atiku, who is seeking the presidency on the ADC platform, also described himself as the most popular politician of northern extraction, saying none of his contemporaries, including Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal and Nasir El-Rufai, commanded a voter base across the North as wide as his.
Kwankwaso did not engage the slight directly, but made clear he bore no grudge.
“Politics is just like a game. I’m not fighting anybody and I’m not expecting anybody to fight me. I have no issue with that. I think we are past that level now,” he said.
He challenged those predicting a vote split in Kano to wait for the election result before drawing conclusions.
“Let’s wait for the election and see whether votes are split in Kano or not,” he said.
Kwankwaso also acknowledged a history of working with Atiku, recalling that he served as the former vice president’s northern coordinator during the 2019 presidential election.
“There was an election in 2019 in Port Harcourt. He won the election. I was his coordinator for the north. We worked for him,” he said.
He traced his broader relationship with Atiku to the 2015 APC presidential primary in Lagos, where he placed second behind Muhammadu Buhari, with Atiku third.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
The Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expelled 30 members of the party for instituting legal actions against the party.
The affected members include some aspirants for the National Assembly, and their expulsion may disqualify them from participating in the party’s primary elections.
Disclosing this shortly after the meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party, the State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Sir Valentine Iyiegbu, told reporters that the decision was in line with Section 21, Subsection 5 of the party’s constitution.
“The party discussed those who took the party to court, and many of them are contesting for the House of Representatives tickets of the party,” he said.
“The matter comes up tomorrow, and the SEC stated that what the party constitution stipulates would be followed, which is outright expulsion from the party under Article 21, Subsection 5.”
“The SEC actually ratified their expulsion because they did not exhaust all the internal avenues provided by the party to resolve their grievances,” he added.
Iyiegbu noted that the only reprieve available to the expelled members would be for them to withdraw their court cases.
“It is only when the matters are withdrawn from the court that the party can consider listening to them,” he said.
Speaking on the party’s primary elections, he explained:
“In the case of those contesting for the tickets of the Federal House of Representatives, all the eleven positions have aspirants, while for the Senate, the three positions are also being contested. The screening committees were here to perform their duties,” he noted.
The party also ratified the appointment of a five-man Primary Elections Committee headed by Sir Izuchukwu Okeke, the State Organising Secretary of the party.
By PETRUS OBI
Frontline aspirant for the Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency seat, Anayo Onwuegbu, has successfully completed the screening exercise conducted by the All Progressives Congress House of Representatives screening panel in Abuja ahead of the party primaries scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026.
Speaking after the exercise, Onwuegbu expressed satisfaction with the screening process, describing it as a reflection of the party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and credible leadership selection ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The aspirant, who is seeking to represent Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency under the platform of the APC, stated that he remains focused and prepared to continue to offer quality representation to the people of the constituency.
According to him, “The process once again highlights our party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and the emergence of credible leadership as we prepare for the 2027 general elections.”
He reaffirmed his dedication to the development of the constituency, pledging to serve the people with commitment and purpose if elected.
The APC House of Representatives primaries are expected to hold nationwide on Friday as aspirants battle for the party’s tickets ahead of the 2027 elections.
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