The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Prince Uche Secondus

  • I’m most qualified to lead PDP, says Secondus

    I’m most qualified to lead PDP, says Secondus

    Foremost chairmanship aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Prince Uche Secondus has declared himself the most qualified to lead the party.

    A statement by Bisi Ezekiel of his Media office quoted Secondus as saying he has that courage, experience and determination for repositioning the party for victory in the 2019 election.

    He also flaunted his records as a party leader and activist and dared other aspirants to tell the party what political battles they had won and what political school they passed out from, stressing that he had passed through tough political baptism.

    “We have passed through political hell in the hands of the opposition. We are not scared of them. We are ready to lead our party to victory. How many of my colleagues aspirants can lay claim to our records and courage in the face of political persecution?

    “In 2019, the race is for the compassionately tough as the ruling party will go after our party. We need a leader of my records and background for total victory. We are not lily livered politicians. We have faced political fire and we have survived. They attack us because they know we are the leading contender and I challenge them to compare their records with my own”, the statement quoted him as saying.

    “My accusers are scared of me and party delegates know why they are. They attack me severally because they don’t have my records. I have been the chairman before and I know what it takes to reposition the party.

    “We are not worried about the gang up as we have reached out to all delegates. They know my capacity, they know my plans and they know we are the winning camp. We premise our campaign on merit, not ethnicity and religious sentiments,” the statement noted.

    The aspirant said the “PDP needs  leaders who have taken and are still willing to take political bullet for the party; leaders who have refused to be intimidated and are still tackling intimidation from oppressive federal officials; and  leaders who have sworn to symbolically die for the party to make it regain power come 2019.

    “Who is more qualified to lead the opposition to the next electoral battle than a graduate of a political war front with winning records?  For the PDP to make it to power, leaders who have faced and survived baptism of political fire must lead it. To most delegates, winning and returning to power in 2019 is the focus and they are in for a leader with the courage and the tenacious determination for victory.”

  • Leave our elders alone, stop dropping names – Secondus 

    Leave our elders alone, stop dropping names – Secondus 

    The former acting National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party PDP and a front runner in the National Chairmanship position, Prince Uche Secondus has called on his colleagues in the race to leave the party leaders alone and stop dropping their names.

    Prince Secondus said in a statement by his media office in Abuja that his colleagues should respect leaders of the party especially former President’s and Heads of state and stopping dragging them into partisan roles.

    According to the statement, the media office gathered from intelligence that some National Chairmanship aspirants have mapped out strategies aimed at furnishing media houses with stories claiming that they have been endorsed by these elders.

    Secondus said that such mischief has far reaching implications for the desired harmony and peace in the party since the elders are our fall backs for unbiased roles.

    “The motive of those supplying media houses with fake stories is clear, to discredit the convention and weaken the party ahead of the general election, but they would not succeed because our delegates will not be swayed by that.

    “Bad enough that some aspirants in their desperation to lead the party at all cost have dragged some of our revered members of the Board of Trust BOT into playing clear bias roles and now want to drag former Presidents in.

    “Severally, our leaders have been boxed into a corner by aspirants who put words into their mouth knowing that they would not want to come public to deny or concur”

    The statement said that the report in one of the National dailies claiming that former President Goodluck Jonathan wants the National chairman to come from a particular zone is not only a fabrication from the reporter but deliberately intended to mislead.

    “Former President Jonathan being a loyal and dedicated leader of the party couldn’t have said that since he is fully aware that it is the decision of the party convention to zone the chairmanship position to the three zones in the South.

    “Dr. Jonathan knows as a fact that our constitution states   clearly that nobody or group or any organ of the party can change convention decision except a convention and he couldn’t have said what is attributed to him.

    “It’s disrespectful for anybody to have dragged the name of the former President to the media, by trying to say what he did not say.”

    Prince Secondus then advised members of the party particularly the delegates to the December 9th convention to disregard the concocted story.

  • EFCC detains Secondus for collecting cars from Diezani’s associate

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday detained the Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, for allegedly receiving 23 choice vehicles from a business associate of ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

    He was also grilled for about eight hours on the curious gifts.

    Secondus’s detention has created panic in PDP because some leaders of the party allegedly benefitted from the vehicles’ allocation.

  • How PDP spent N11b forms proceeds, by Secondus

    How PDP spent N11b forms proceeds, by Secondus

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday gave account of how the controversial N12 billion generated by the party during the last general elections was spent.

    The money was the proceeds from sale of nomination and expression of interest forms from various elective office seekers across the federation.

    At a briefing in Abuja, the party’s Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, said the actual amount was not N12 billion but a little over N11b.

    According to him, “10 percent of the money went to the state chapters, five percent to the zonal chapters and another five percent to local government chapters of the party.

    “Another 15 percent was expended on assignments by various party functionaries and the rest was used to fund our campaigns. We raised money and we used the money for elections. We don’t need to go into details”.

    Protesting workers at the party secretariat have been at war with the Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC) following the alleged embezzlement of the money, which they said was partly responsible for the poor outing of the PDP in the general election.

    The NWC had threatened to sack half of the workers and reduce their pay by 50 per cent, a development that further infuriated the aggrieved workers.

    Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, who led the PDP Senate caucus to the briefing, explained why the party must reduce the secretariat workers.

    Akpabio said: “We can no longer run to the Villa for cash so we don’t have the wherewithal to maintain that large number of secretariat workers.

    “The workers should understand that they are in a master-servant relationship in which you cannot force an unwilling master to keep a recalcitrant servant. We are definitely going to downsize”.

    Akpabio and Secondus complained about what they described as “harassment and intimidation” of the party’s ex-governors and former ministers who served under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    According to them, the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were singling out ex PDP public office holders for investigation.

    They urged the anti grant and security agencies to prove that only ex-PDP public office holders were corrupt and that those that were elected under the All Progressives Congress (APC) were saints.

    “We have been reading in the papers about corrupt practices in Rivers and Lagos State under the control of the APC. But the EFCC has not deemed it fit to invite the immediate past governors of these states,” Secondus said.

    The party leaders also complained about what they termed the arrest and intimidation of electoral officials in Rivers, Akwa Inom and Abia states by the DSS, saying the trend was limited to states under the control of the PDP.

    They cautioned the Federal Government against selective application of the law, saying the process must be seen to be holistic.

  • Mini convention: PDP candidate in last minutes efforts

    Mini convention: PDP candidate in last minutes efforts

    As the August 31 date for the mini convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) draws nearer, aspirants vying for various positions in the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) are in last minutes efforts to beat their opponents by every means possible.

    The latest in the series of such efforts emerged with calls for the disqualification of two other aspirants to the office of the deputy national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and Dr. Sam Sam Jaja by one of the aspirants, Dr. Silva Opusunju.

    In a widely circulated statement on Tuesday, Opusunju alleged that all other aspirants to the office of the deputy national chairman had failed to comply with laid down rules and regulations, as stipulated by the party’s constitution.

    He alleged, among others, that aspirants did not file/return their individual nomination forms within the time period allowed for the submission of the forms which, is on or before Friday July 5 and that they did not also pay the correct amount of money for the purchase of the nomination forms.

    To this effect, Opusunju had petitioned the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the Chairman of the Mini Convention Planning Committee, Prof. Jerry Gana.

    In the petition, copies of which were given to journalists on Tuesday, Opusunju alleged that other aspirants to the position purchased and returned their nomination forms after the expiration of the entries.