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There are indications the National Executive
Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party will hold an emergency
meeting today to discuss the status of the national chairman of the
party, Okwesilieze Nwodo.

The NEC will also review the just-concluded party primaries, which were trailed by complaints and defection by members.

The meeting is coming three days after the South East
zonal caucus of the ruling party passed a vote of no confidence on Mr.
Nwodo. Besides, it is being convened a few days after the January 12
ruling of an Enugu High Court restraining him from parading himself as
the party’s national chairman.

Sources at the PDP headquarters in Abuja said that
the meeting will discuss the rift between Mr. Nwodo and the governor of
Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, which has defied solution. It was gathered
that the parley may consider asking the embattled national chairman to
step aside as a way of forestalling further embarrassment of the party.

Jonathan’s support

It was further learnt that President Goodluck
Jonathan is favourable disposed to asking Mr. Nwodo, who emerged
national chairman last June, to give way, especially in the light of
the move to pacify some eminent party chieftains, particularly from the
north, who are opposed to his presidential ambition.

The president is reported to be considering the
implication of going into the presidential contest with a chairman from
the southern part as himself.

Mr. Jonathan is also believed to be disturbed by the
incident at last Thursday’s national convention where the national
chairman addressed the event in controversial circumstances before a
motion was moved by the party’s national legal adviser, Olusola Oke,
and seconded by House of Representative deputy speaker, Usman Nafada,
for Mr. Nwodo’s deputy, Bello Mohammed, to take over the presiding of
the event.

Mr. Nwodo, a former civilian governor of Enugu State,
has been engaged in a supremacy battle with Mr. Chime over the status
of the executive committee of the party in the state. The national
chairman, cashing in on the request by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) for a fresh congress in the state, had
ordered the dissolution of the executive committee led by Vitalis Abba.

However, the governor kicked against the dissolution
just as Mr. Abba and members of his team headed for court asking it to
overturn it, as according to them, Mr. Nwodo acted unilaterally.

More crisis fore Nwodo

Mr. Nwodo further sunk into crisis when a day to the
national convention to pick the presidential candidate of the PDP, a
court in Enugu, presided over by Justice R.N. Onuorah, granted an
interim order restraining him from parading himself as an officer of
the party, pending the determination of the suit, which queried his
eligibility to hold party position.

It was, however, reported that the order had been
evacuated by another High Court in Anambra State sitting in Ekwulobia,
presided over by Justice B.A. Nwankwo, last Thursday, granting an order
restraining the PDP from sending its list of candidates for the April
general elections, except the one signed by Mr. Nwodo.

The court also ordered that Mr. Nwodo remain the
national chairman of the party until the motion on notice before it was
determined. The suit was filed by Annie Okonkwo, a senator, and one
Chike Anyanwu, in which the PDP and the party’s deputy national
chairman, Haliru Bello, were defendants.

Sources say that the confusion created by the court
rulings as well as Mr. Nwodo’s alleged embarrassing outing at the
convention, informed the emergency meeting of the NEC.

The meeting is expected to discuss the implication of
keeping Mr. Nwodo as the national chairman following the court rulings
and the need to pacify some northern members of the party.

A source at PDP has revealed that Josephine Anenih,
women affairs minister, and Pius Anyim, the former Senate president,
are likely replacements for Mr. Nwodo’s position.

The leadership of the South East geo-political
chapter of the PDP met on Sunday during which it passed a vote of no
confidence on the national chairman and asked him to resign. The
meeting was presided by the national vice chairman of the zone, Olisa
Metuh.

“We hereby pass a vote of no confidence on Dr. Nwodo
and ask him to resign his chairmanship of the party, and that if he
fails, the National Executive Committee of our party should expel him
from the party,” the communiqué issued after the meeting said.

“We condemn without reservation the ignoble conduct
of the suspended national chairman of our party, Dr. Nwodo, who
flagrantly disregarding the party’s constitution,

disobeying a valid court order by showing up at the
special convention and lying to the convention that the order had been
vacated, brought shame and embarrassment to the party and therefore us,
his kinsmen and women,” it further said.

The zone also apologised to the country for what it
called calamitous behaviour of the national chairman for not only
showing up but forcibly taking over the officiating at the convention
before he was overpowered and subdued.

It also appealed to PDP members in “the country who
have deserted the party stalwarts in Oyo, Osun, Plateau, Anambra,
Adamawa and other states, since Dr. Nwodo unleashed his high-handedness
on nearly every state chapter of the party, seeking to handpick
candidates without going through the process of primaries to return to
the party.”

But Mr. Nwodo, who reacted through his media aide,
Ike Abonyi, dismissed the decision of the zonal chapter, saying that
the meeting was not properly constituted.

“They didn’t call the meeting properly. How many
governors were there? How many senators and House of Representatives
members were there? It was not attended by any governor except Sullivan
Chime.

“Their meeting is political. It has no legal implications and they
don’t have the powers to remove the national chairman,” Mr. Abonyi said.