Emma Aziken
11 May 2008
Lagos — THE chairman of the Delta State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Peter Nwaoboshi and party chieftain and elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark have exchanged strong words over genuine membership of the party with Nwaoboshi saying he was fed up with the antics of his critics led by Clark.
Clark in a riposte accused the new PDP chairman in Delta State of playing ostrich in his bid for political survival accusing the new party helmsman of abandoning the struggle and teaming up with his former foes in the new Government.
Rebuffing the endorsement of the Nwaoboshi led executive by the Vincent Ogbulafor led national executive as a bargain won for it by the immediate past Governor, Chief James Ibori, Clark vowed that his group was taking its appeal to President Umaru Yar'Adua to upturn the decision.
Nwaoboshi declared categorically that he respected Clark simply on account of his age but dismissed his followers as charlatans hiding under his cover to gain relevance. He claimed that the insurgency against the party mainstream was being stoked by four aspirants in the last PDP gubernatorial primaries who he accused of being bad losers.
Clark and Nwaoboshi spoke in separate interviews with Sunday Vanguard weekend.
Clark and his supporters are not PDP members - Nwaoboshi
HOW do you respond to the action by Chief Clerk and his group opposing the decision of the PDP national secretariat to endorse your executive?
I can tell you that a majority of them in that group are not PDP members. I don't know when he joined PDP, you may have to ask him, when did he join PDP?
There are no two PDP in Delta State, there is only a group of agitators, most of them are not PDP members, PDP is one. All the members of the National Assembly from Delta State are with me, all the members of the State House of Assembly in Delta State are with me, all the former and present party chairmen in the local governments are with me.
But they keep on raising issues
They make noise in the newspapers, they talk in the newspapers, they are a group of agitators.
We have tried to have permanent peace with them, but they have refused to obey what is called party discipline.
Most of them are not PDP members, we told them at the national secretariat that most of them are not PDP members and we have evidence to show that they are not PDP members. Where was Chief E.K. Clark in 1999 when the party was being formed?
Where was he in 2003? We just chose not to join issues with him out of respect for his age, not that, politically, E.K. Clark can do anything to anybody, we are just respecting his age and because age is something people are bound to respect.
All those people there are noise makers, all of them, we only respect people like E.K. Clark and many of the agitators are hiding, using his influence to be talking. We only respect the man for his age, respect him because everybody aspires to get to that kind of age, that is all that we look up to in him, not that we are fearing that they have anything to do, they cannot influence any election in Delta.
Exasperated?
I believe in the concept of party discipline. You have made your point before the national chairman and national working committee, the national working committee has given their verdict, you don't have to go to the pages of newspapers to cast aspersion on the national executive of the party. It shows lack of discipline. It is only respect that we are respecting Chief E.K. Clark.
It is not that anybody in PDP in Delta State is fearing that he has anything to do to the success of the party in Delta, is only we are respecting his age and believe that at that age, he is an elder-statesman and he should be respected. But not that Chief E.K. Clark and his group can influence for or against the success of the PDP in Delta State.
We respect Chief E.K. Clark as an individual but I can tell you that, minus him, there is nobody in that group that can make any influence in an election in Delta State. we only respect him.
The local government election is coming up on Saturday, if they have influence, let them test it out in the field. I feel provoked that the national working Committee of the party has taken a decision and you still go on the pages of the newspapers to cast aspersion, it shows lack of discipline. I am a product of a disciplined party, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), where we were taught to be disciplined and obey the rules and regulations and to respect party hierarchy.
But if you feel you can intimidate, nobody can intimidate PDP in Delta State and, of course, I am not somebody that can be intimidated. They know me, they know my pedigree, I am not somebody that can be intimidated, nobody. I respect human beings, but I don't fear any human being in this world. I respect human beings.
We believe that we have given him enough respect, we have been keeping quiet, we have extended the hands of fellowship to him, he congratulated me when I won. He is not from Delta north where the chairmanship of the party is zoned to, he cannot speak for Delta north because the party chairmanship is zoned to Delta north. He cannot extend his hand...he is not a leader of the party in Delta State, he is not even the leader of the party in the south, or in his local government.
He is not the leader of the party in Delta State, the leader of the party in Delta State is the governor, he is not the leader of the party in his senatorial district because that is also the senatorial district of the governor, there is also a senator from that senatorial district who is with me. He is also not the leader of the party in his own local government. So what is all this?
A local government election is coming and if his group feels that they have power to do anything...majority of them voted for DPP in the last election, we only respect Chief E.K. Clark and we feel that we should not take on him because of his age, but he should not provoke the party in the state. He should not, he is insulting the governor of the state, he is insulting the national leadership of the party, we have had enough.
Those who have lost in the governorship election are just using Chief E.K. Clark as a camouflage, there are about four ex-governorship aspirants who contested the party primaries with Uduaghan, they are all using the name of E.K. Clark, hiding under his canopy because they lost out in the election.
The PDP decision was not based on facts -Clark
NWAOBOSHI is a man that you can not rely on, everybody knows him to be that. I have shown my card to the electronic media several times, and they are accusing Senator Brume who contested election under PDP that he has never been a PDP member. If there is any body that has not been a true PDP member, it is Nwaoboshi who has been running from pillar to post; today he is with Ibori, tomorrow he is with somebody else and so on.
I made a mistake when he was introduced to me, I never met him before until he was introduced to me, he came to my house and gave me kolanut and pleaded with me that he wanted to be chairman of PDP. I said, 'well, I give you my blessing', there were others who also wanted to contest, but I said,' I gave my blessing to all of them who came to me. For Nwaoboshi to lie against me that I wanted him to support Okocha, he is from his home town, I have no business to do with Okocha.
Well, they would soon discover him, he is a candidate of Mrs. Ali. Mrs. Ali brought him and appealed to us that we should take him, but we said no that we won't take him, but when we agreed, instead of unifying the party, he decided to split the party and because of the benefit he was receiving from Uduaghan, he decided to swear in local government executives that were never in existence because PDP under Emmanuel Ogidi cancelled the congress at the grassroots because Mrs. Ali was having the materials. So, as far as we are concerned, Nwaoboshi is a child of circumstance and he would soon collapse.
For him to accuse us that we are not party men, let him mention anybody that is not a party member. The chairman of our own executive is General Philip Onyekwele, a first class gentleman, a founding member of PDP, he was one of those that conducted the presidential primaries. So, who are the people who are not members of the PDP?
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