AFTER series of nocturnal meetings and consultations among the stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) throughout the week in Abuja which led to the resignation of 20 members of the National Working Committee (NWC) whose election into office was faulted by INEC, and the subsequent setting up of a caretaker committee to run the party till the mini-convention slated for July, The Guardian learnt Friday that the affected members of the NWC have already commenced lobbying for a recall at the convention.
One of the affected members, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that members of the caretaker committee were nominated by the party's governors and other stakeholders in the party who are loyal and committed to President Goodluck Jonathan's second term agenda.
"From the way the whole thing is going, the mini-convention slated for next month might just be to ratify the members of the caretaker committee through election which will make it difficult for any of us to come back again, unless those of us whose godfathers are in the good books of the Presidency," the source said.
The member revealed that apart from the INEC report, the major reason they were asked to resign was that some powerful people in the Presidency and the national leadership of the party were of the opinion that they were working with anti-Jonathan governors in the party.
He said: "That is why no member of the Caretaker Committee was nominated by anti-Jonathan governors and stakeholders in the party. But despite the development, some of us were nominated and supported by pro-Jonathan governors in the party. So, we are already reaching out to them to seek for their support to stage a comeback at the zonal and mini-convention in July."
The Guardian learnt that some members of the Caretaker Committee were also lobbying to be elected at the mini-convention and that some of them, specifically one from the South-South zone who has held a higher position in the party, was assured before his nomination that he would be elected at the convention as a way of keeping his state governor in check ahead of 2015.
Meanwhile, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party from Southeast zone, disclosed to The Guardian that despite what transpired during the NEC meeting on Thursday, it was obvious that all was not well in the party.
The member said the countenance of some of the governors and party stakeholders during the meeting showed that they were not happy with the way things were going in the party.
"Apart from Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom who is also chairman of the PDP Governors' Forum, no other governor of the party was allowed to talk at the meeting. Some of them from the North who had been talking tough were absent, a pointer that the crisis within the party is not abating.
"I am worried that the crisis started almost two years before the next election and it might spell doom for our party," the member stressed.
