PDP Crisis: Chairman faults alleged removal, mull court action
Mr. Venatius Ikem has described his alledged removal as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River by the State Working Committee (SWC) as faulty and against the party’s constitution.
While noting his purported removal to be political, Ikem said he might consider legal action against the act.
He made his position known while fielding questions from newsmen in Calabar on Saturday.
Ikem described the allegations against him put forward by the State Working Committee (SWC) as not only baseless but an attempt made to portray him as misfit for the office he had held for over four years.
It will be recalled that the state’s SWC had on Friday removed Ikem from office as the chairman of the party in the state on allegations of financial misappropriation, high-handiness, and ineptitude.
Immediately, the SWC announced Mr. Austin Edibe, who was the party’s vice chairman in the northern senatorial district of the party in the state, as his replacement.
However, Ikem said, “Like they always say, you give a dog a bad name when you want to hang it.The truth is that, to the best of my knowledge, I run one of the most efficient EXCOS of our party.
“We meet regularly, and I think in the last quarter or so we have had two stakeholder meetings. We have our regular State Committee meetings and the stakeholder meetings.
“Secondly, I think there must be issues to discuss, whenever there are issues and programs, I am always there, We just had a party revalidation exercise this year, we had the party congresses this year we performed well.
“The last local government elections, we stood up very strong and I am very proud of our outing despite the outcome given the circumstances
“To me, I know and everybody knows that I am doing my best to run the party within the context we find ourselves in. So talking about not holding meetings or ineptitude leadership is completely out of the question.
“One of the problems I see in the PDP is the hangover of being in government; we have been in government for so long that many people have never experienced being out of government.
“They believe that things should be the way they used to be when we held sway in the government house.
“The drastic change to being an opposition party is not being properly absorbed by our members, so their expectations are usually not what is possible in terms of availability of welfare, availability of funds for this and that, but even given that we have done very well.
“The national assembly members have been very supportive; they have programs and even with some stipends to support us monthly.”
On the allegation of misappropriation of funds, Ikem, who said he ran a cashless policy, said that the books were there for everyone to see.
Ikem alleged that the insecurity of a sitting senator was behind his alleged removal.
According to him, my crime is that I am supporting Hon. Peter Akpanke against him (Senator). I don’t know whether anybody is contesting against him in 2027.
“He used to say Peter wanted to contest against him, but Peter has said he is not contesting against him, so I’m supporting Peter against him. Those are the underlying political issues.
“These ones are just cover-ups to say they have a valid reason. The real reason is political: I should not be supporting Peter.
“For me, the same support I give to him is the same support all my elected officials are entitled to. It does not matter the positions they hold, so I cannot support him as a senator more than I am supporting other members,” he said.
