The Senator David Mark-led Peoples Democratic Party Committee saddled with the responsibility of finding a lasting solution to the plethora of court cases, as well as conflict of interests between feuding party leaders, is to present its report or an interim report by September 9, The PUNCH reports.
It was gathered in Abuja on Tuesday that party stakeholders who are expected to hold the 93rd National Executive Committee meeting of the party on that date, are hopeful that meaningful progress would have been made by then.
A member of the party leadership, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on the issue, said, “We have a lot of confidence in the ability of the Mark committee to deliver on this very important assignment.
“As you know, the former Senate President is a party loyalist to the core. He is one person who you can give a task and go to sleep and we can confidently say, he is one person whose major interest is the preservation of the PDP brand.
“We expect at least an interim report from the committee by the time we meet in less than two weeks’ time to decide on the membership of the zoning and convention committee.”
The PUNCH had reported that the party’s NEC had set up the David Mark panel after its 92nd meeting in Abuja, last Saturday.
It was mandated to get the feuding party members to withdraw pending litigation from various Courts and subject themselves to the internal conflict resolution mechanism of the PDP.
This followed three conflicting court orders served on Secondus from different courts.
A Rivers State High Court had issued a restraining order asking Secondus not to parade himself as National Chairman but a High Court in Kebbi State granted an order asking him to immediately resume office, soon after he obeyed both orders, a Cross River State High Court issued an order barring him from presiding over the affairs of the party.
Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, had in his remarks at the NEC meeting said, “We have activated all mechanisms that we have in PDP, to resolve all of our issues.”
This is even as the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, on Tuesday, expressed confidence that the results of the reconciliation efforts being made by the Senator Bukola Saraki-led National Reconciliation and Strategy Committee will soon become manifest.
Secondus, who spoke through his Media Adviser, Ike Abonyi, in Abuja, explained that the committee’s mandate was not given a timeline because the process of reconciliation often takes time.
He said, “Remember, the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus set up the Saraki-committee with a specific assignment to reconcile aggrieved members and work of strategies that will help the party win the 2023 election, this is on course.
“Without prejudice to the work being done by other committees, the result of the work being done by Saraki and his team will soon become manifest.
“We expect genuine reconciliation to take place so that the congresses in the remaining nine states will be completed before our national convention.”
