Fintiri: Incumbent PDP NWC tenure continues till December 9

The tenure of the present National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will continue till December 9, even as the national convention holds on Saturday.
Chairman of the party’s National Convention Organising Committee, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, disclosed this on Friday, while briefing newsmen on the party preparations for the convention in Abuja.
He said though the party wanted early convention holding on Saturday, it was not planning to truncate the tenure of the incumbent NWC members ending December 9.
“There will be no any vacuum because we are not truncating anybody’s tenure.
“We only call for an early convention, which is also in the provision of our Constitution.
“But that does not mean that because we are having early convention, we are terminating the tenure of the present NWC. They will still be asked to serve their term until December 9.
“If not for anything, it will give better chance for them to interface and have a smooth transition,” he said .
Fintiri, who said that in as much as the party expected vibrant new NWC members, it also appreciated the present national leaders of the party.
“They were able to galvanise support, plan and work for this party in 2019 to move from about 10 governors to almost 18, with more House of Representatives members than the previous election.”
Speaking on the convention, Fintiri said that the Screening Appeal Committee upheld the disqualification of the three aspirants.
He clarified that Okey Muo-Aroh, contesting National Secretary was disqualified for not respecting the zoning arrangement of the party.
He said that the position of national secretary was zoned to the South, which micro zoned to the South East.
He added that the South East caucus met and zoned it to Abia and Imo states while the Office of the Auditor was zoned to Enugu and Anambra.
He said that instead of Muo-Aroh from Anambra State to contest the office of auditor zoned to his state, he went to purchase form for position zoned to Imo and Abia states.
“I think every institution and organisation must have a way to discipline its members.”
With regards petitions against some of the cleared candidates, Fintiri said “the appeal panel has found most of petitions as baseless and frivolous and the petitions have been displaced.”
Fintiri noted that the party had achieved consensus in almost all the positions that would be vied for except for three positions on which negotiations were still ongoing.
He listed three positions still having more than one contestants to be deputy national chairman (South), national auditor and national youth leader, saying the party was already discussing with the contestants.
“At the moment, we are making efforts to reconcile most of our contestants so that we can streamline them to have a better convention, which will be hitch free and deepen our chances for 2023.”
He expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations for the convention, saying all the subcommittees have been mobilised and they are fully prepared to deliver by Saturday.
“Most of the activities have all most been completed and we are fully satisfied,” he said.
He added that 3,600 delegates were being expected in the convention.
The organising committee and party leadership, thereafter, inspected the convention venue, Eagle Square, to know the level of preparedness.
Speaking with newsmen, the PDP National Organising Secretary, Col. Austin Akobundu (rtd), said the preparations were ongoing and everything would be completed before midnight.
Akobundu said that so far, there was no challenge regarding the venue and the level of preparations.
“We are ready as a party. This is what we do all the time. And there are lots of improvements because of the reforms our NWC has brought about in the party, especially in the area of accreditation.
“We have introduced technology and integrity-based accreditation, which perhaps the National Assembly is afraid of, which we will be using tomorrow in terms of voting as a party.
“We have introduced it and it will become part of our activities from there.”
There was already tight security arrangement in and around the venue of the convention, even as delegates from states have started arriving.