Onimisi Alao, Yola
Reformed PDP (r-PDP), a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State, has commenced a ward by ward registration of members.
The membership registration is billed for all the 226 wards of the 21 local government areas of the state.
“This is a consolidation exercise, as it incorporates people who share the conviction that the PDP in our state as it stands today needs to be reformed,” the state interim deputy chairman of the r-PDP,” Hon Bugi Ethan, told our correspondent.
Bugi Ethan, a former chairman of Guyuk local government counci,l who was one of the people who formally registered as a member of the r-PDP at his Bobini Ward in Guyuk LGA, spoke during the registration which continued on Saturday,
Ethan, who is reputed to command large community followership, said lots of people had long indicated interest to identify with the r-PDP and are therefore expected to turn up for the exercise which began on Friday.
He said: “We are expecting many to put their names down and obtain our membership cards. But I need to explain a misconception. R-PDP is not another party. It’s just a body of PDP members who have quarrel with PDP in the state and we have registered this quarrel with the national headquarters.”
A major allegation of the promoters of the r-PDP, led by a former governorship aspirant of the the party, Dr Umar Ardo, has always been that the executive committee of the ruling PDP is illegally constituted.
READ ALSO: Factional Adamawa PDP to register members
Ethan repeated the allegation during his interview in Guyuk, saying, “I will give you an example of Guyuk where I am, of how things have gone wrong. In 2017, I became a member of caretaker committee of the PDP. We were supposed to plan how congresses were to be conducted. I conducted the congresses from ward to local government in Guyuk.
“Those people who emerged had their names as the executives of the party at those levels in the national register of the party, but the people now acting as executives at those levels are not the people who were duly elected, because two weeks after they were sworn in, there were another set of congresses in Guyuk, which were not authorised by national because the national body did not see any wrong in the congresses that I organised.
“This has happened in other local governments. Those who emerged from duly authorised congresses are not the ones in place.”
He asserted that the national headquarters of the PDP has been responding to the r-PDP, explaining, “These cards we are issuing to the people registered with us were signed by national chairman, Mr Secondus. The national supports this registration, otherwise they would not have provided the registers and signed the membership cards we are giving to registered members.”
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