PDP Chairman, Uche Secondus berates federal lawmakers for betraying party

National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus has lashed out at senators and House of Representatives members on the platform of the party for voting against the directive of the party at the recent election of principal officer of the National Assembly.

He described their failure to vote according to the party’s directive during the 9th Assembly elections as ‘shameful and embarrassing’, and an affront to the leadership of the party.

He further stated that the party has resolved to investigate this in a bid to forestall a future occurrence.

Secondus was speaking at the 86th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP in Abuja on Thursday, June 20, 2019.

The party had directed its members to vote for Ali Ndume for Senate President and Umar Bago for Speaker, House of Representatives as against the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila, for Senate presidency and Speaker of House of Representatives, respectively.

But Ndume and Bago got lower number of votes compared to the strength of the party’s lawmakers as Lawan and Gbajabiamila won, an indication that PDP lawmakers voted against their party’s directive.

Prince Uche Secondus, said: “Permit me at this juncture dear leaders to express the disappointment of our party on the embarrassing roles of some of our party members at the National Assembly during the election of their leaders.”

“Party loyalty demands that you stick to your party at any given situation. When personal interest clash with party interest, personal should drown into that of the party, that’s what real democrats are expected to do.”

He also decried what he called vote-buying, saying the “ruling APC came up with their ‘green card’ ‘vote and snap’ fraud that introduced an unprecedented dimension to the growing corruption index of this administration. My worry is the consequences this brazen corruption would have in the legislative activities of the Ninth Assembly.”