PDP NATIONAL CONVENTION – OPEN LETTER AGAINST THE PURPORTED ANAMBRA STATE CONSENSUS CANDIDATE, MR. OBI OKECHUKWU WHO IS A STRANGER AND UNKNOWN TO PDP PARTY MEMBERS

PRESS RELEAS

*RE: PDP NATIONAL CONVENTION – OPEN LETTER AGAINST THE PURPORTED ANAMBRA STATE CONSENSUS CANDIDATE, MR. OBI OKECHUKWU WHO IS A STRANGER AND UNKNOWN TO PDP PARTY MEMBERS.*

My attention has been drawn to a Press Statement signed by Chief Ali Odefa (Southeast zonal vice-chairman), where he mentioned one Mr. Obi Okechukwu as the consensus candidate for the office of the PDP National Auditor in the forthcoming National Convention of our great party.

For emphasis, I joined PDP at the formation stage in 1998 with Dr. Alex Ekwueme. I have been in PDP till date, hardly is there any critical stakeholder of the party in Anambra state that is unknown to me.

From 1998 till date, it has been the norm that the position of a National Officer be discussed and agreed to by the major stakeholders of the party in Anambra State, whereas I am not aware of any meeting held either within Anambra state or beyond, where the said “consensus” candidate was discussed or agreed.

Upon my embarrassing receipt of the Press Statement by Chief Odefa, I inquired to know how and when the consensus agreement was reached, only to discover that one of the PDP leaders from Anambra State connived with some leaders outside Anambra state to impose the so-called Mr. Obi Okechukwu on our great party members.

*From my investigations, the said Mr. Obi Okechukwu has never been an executive or major stakeholder of the party at either the ward, LGA or State level, but just a personal associate of the leader.*

Let us recall that we lost some State, National Assembly, party executives, BOT members and other big stakeholders to other political parties, based on the outcome of our last governorship primary.

*This new style of imposing strangers on the party despite having qualified loyal party men and women, who have laboured for the party is unacceptable and should be resisted by all party members. We should not kill the reward system that used to be the norm in Anambra State PDP and Nigeria in general.*

Personally, I reject and call on all loyal party members in the state to also reject the purported consensus agreement on Mr. Obi Okechukwu.

Finally, *I advice the State Chairman of the party to urgently convene a State Caucus meeting based on Section 22 of our party’s constitution, to reach a consensus agreement* before the National Convention, scheduled to hold between October 30th – 31st, 2021.

God bless PDP!

God bless Anambra State!!

God bless Nigeria!!!

Signed:

*Chief Amaechi Onowu*

Foundation member, PDP

Former, State Organising Secretary, PDP, Anambra State

Former, Vice-chairman, Anambra Central, PDP Anambra State

Former, State Deputy Chairman, PDP, Anambra State

*Cc:*

Mr. Peter Obi, Leader, PDP, Anambra State

Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, Governorship Candidate, PDP, Anambra State

PDP BOT Members, Anambra State

Chief Olisa Metuh, Former National Officer, Anambra State

PDP National Assembly Members, Anambra State

PDP State Assembly Members, Anambra State

PDP NEC Members, Anambra State

PDP Zonal Exexutive Members, Anambra State

PDP State Executive, Anambra State