Text of World Press Conference of PDP Imo State

DDM News

1. Declare NO FACTIONS and NO VACANCY in Its Leadership Structure, Warn Impostors to Steer Clear.

2. Reiterate that the Hope Uzodimma administration in the State is a monumental failure by infallible proofs, and restate the PDP’s Readiness Ahead of the 2027 General Elections to recover the State from the ruinous APC regime in the State and offer People-Oriented and Development-Centred Governance.

May 28, 2025

Gentlemen of the Press,

As you all know, on July 27, 2024, in accordance with the timetable approved by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, the Imo State Chapter of the PDP held its ward congress.

This was followed by the LGA congress on August 10, 2024, and subsequently the State Congress on August 31, 2024, which produced the State Working Committee (SWC) and the State Executive Committee (SEC).

These congresses were observed to be open, free, fair, and credible; monitored by security agencies (including the DSS and the Police), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and gentlemen of the press.

Officers of the party at the Ward, LGA, and State levels who emerged meritoriously from these congresses have since been duly sworn in and are discharging their duties without any threat or opposition whatsoever.

We wish to vehemently emphasize that there were no parallel congresses at any level, and to date, these congresses remain unchallenged in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Within the internal organs of the party, the congresses are also not subject to any form of scrutiny or dispute, having followed the laid-down rules and procedures enshrined in the party’s constitution for electing officers.

However, to the surprise of Imo people, on April 28, 2025, publications appeared on social media alluding to the creation of a new Interim Executive of the party in the State and an announcement of an Acting State Chairman. This development followed a meeting of his friends convened by a certain expelled and disgruntled Ugochinyere in his hometown, wherein he unilaterally and unashamedly proclaimed someone as the Acting State Chairman of Imo PDP. It was the height of his lawlessness and rascality. That was not just ridiculous but a joke taken too far.

As a party, our first reaction to the Akokwa madness is that it is alien to party politics and administration for an individual to gather a few of his kinsmen in his sitting room and declare a duly elected and legally constituted Ward, LGA, and State Executive of the party nullified, proceeding further to appoint an Interim Executive, let alone one who is not even a member of the party. Insanity cannot be better illustrated.

The party, therefore, wishes to make the following clarifications for the benefit of unsuspecting members of the public who may be misled by that charade:

The Imo State Chapter of the PDP is indisputably led by Hon. Austin Nwachukwu as the State Chairman, and there is only one State Working Committee (SWC) of the party. There are no factions in Imo State PDP.

The effort by the fellow who had long been expelled from the party to impose himself or anyone else on the party’s leadership is not only criminal but also madness of the highest order.

The party, therefore, cautions any individual or group attempting to impose themselves as officers of the party in Imo State to beware of the legal implications of their actions. Imo PDP will henceforth not treat their mischief with kid gloves.

Furthermore, we want to emphasize that the leader of the party in the State is Dist. Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and there is no contest around that.

He earned it. Today, members, supporters, stakeholders, and other leaders of the party in Imo State know and regard him as their illustrious leader.

The recent stakeholders’ meeting and grand reception of him following his victory at the Supreme Court is a lucid pointer.

It was a massive show of love and approval of Senator Anyanwu’s leadership.

The world saw it. In addition, his position as National Secretary of the party has since been affirmed by the Supreme Court.

He was duly elected to serve a definite four-year tenure. He never resigned or left his position.

There is no vacancy as far as the position of National Secretary is concerned, and it is only illegal, uncalled for, and an invitation to crisis for anyone or group to call for his removal.

Gentlemen of the press, we submit to you in all honesty that it is mission impossible.

This has been affirmed by INEC, which confirmed to the committee set up by the leadership of the party at the national level to ascertain who the electoral umpire recognizes by law as National Secretary, that it is Senator Anyanwu and no other person.

This is the position of the law and it is the justice which the Supreme Court has served.

Also, yesterday’s meeting of PDP stakeholders in Abuja reaffirms Senator Anyanwu’s position as National Secretary, as the party leadership has realized that Senator Anyanwu remaining as National Secretary holds the key to the party’s stability and progress.

Gentlemen, under the present leadership of Imo PDP which assumed office in September 2024, the PDP in Imo State has taken deliberate steps targeted at reforms that have reassured members of the party and the public that the party belongs to them — the people — and stands as a platform where dreams and genuine aspirations are kept alive and not suppressed by impunity and imposition.

In returning the party back to the people, the present leadership has sincerely promoted internal democracy.

These reforms have birthed increased interest in the party by Imolites, adding to the fact that Imo is traditionally a PDP State, with a strong and unflinching grassroots support base.

It has led to the party receiving into its fold defectors from other political parties, as with the case of Aboh Mbaise, where 52 Labour Party members recently defected to the PDP.

The doors of the party are always open to receive more members. It is indeed a new dawn.

As of today, Imo PDP is assuredly ready for the 2027 general elections.

The party’s platform is open to people with the intention of seeking elective positions.

As a responsible party, we will continue to keep the present administration on its toes.

This is beyond politics. We owe ourselves the duty to fight for the common good of the vast majority of Imo people who are yearning for good governance, which the present Hope Uzodimma administration has woefully failed to offer.

Does it need mentioning again? Everyone in the State knows that the Hope Uzodimma administration is a monumental failure.

The last five years of the present regime have been marred by terror, bloodshed, corruption, and waste.

The failure to secure the lives and property of Imo people is already well documented.

However, what is more striking is how the present regime has ensured that every critical sector of the State’s economy went into a coma.

Let’s begin with the education sector. Just yesterday, the world celebrated Children’s Day, and Imo marked the day with the reality of public schools being on the path of extinction staring it in the face.

Not only has the State Government left most of the schools without qualified teachers, having failed to carry out teacher recruitment in the last five years, students have been forced to learn on bare floors, under mango trees, given the dilapidation of the public schools’ infrastructure.

Sadly, in the 21st century under a world economy driven by science and technology, the few Imo public schools still standing cannot boast of libraries, laboratories, and computer labs.

To crown it all, last year, Imo pupils and students gained admission into junior and senior secondary schools without crucial examinations, including the common entrance, the First School Leaving Certificate Examination and the Junior West Africa Examination Certificate (WAEC), because the State Government failed to conduct them.

This represents a total collapse of the education sector.

On road infrastructure, we note with grief the fact that the state government has prioritized playing to the gallery and fraudulently embezzling public funds.

For example, the State Government announced just yesterday that it has awarded the World Bank – Umuguma and the Nekede-Iheanwa roads in Owerri for construction.

These are roads awarded in 2020 by the same government for tens of billions without anything tangible happening on the roads.

This is the height of theft and sleaze. Today, Imo rural roads are the worst in Southern Nigeria.

Despite receiving N6.1 billion of ecological funds in the last five years, Imo is littered with gully erosion sites. There is one at Urualla in Ideato North LGA, another at Nkwo Mbaa Ugiri in Isiala Mbano LGA, another at Akwakuma-Hardel junction road in Owerri North LGA.

With the State receiving an average of N6.5 billion monthly as LGA allocations between January and September 2024, and N8 billion monthly from September 2024 to May 2025, the State has received N162 billion in LGA allocations in the last 16 months alone.

When you add that to over N350 billion in previous months, it amounts to over N500 billion with nothing to show for it

Not in infrastructure, commerce and industry, education, payment of minimum wage, pensions, and gratuities, etc.

The Uzodimma administration must be made to account for these monies.

Today, Imo is not actually paying the N70,000 minimum wage. As a party, we have in recent times held the informed position that the Imo State Government had yet to implement the old N30,000 minimum wage, given that level 10 and 12 workers in various ministries barely earn around N50,000 monthly.

Today, what we have is a situation where a senior worker earns almost the same as a junior worker.

If a level 5 worker earns N71,000 and a level 12 worker earns N73,000, will you call that payment of minimum wage? Where did the tens of thousands that should accrue to the level 12 worker go?

Do you know the irony? Workers who are at level 5 and below do not constitute up to 10 percent of the workforce.”

The government payrolled workers from Government House.

The labour union and various ministries had no input.

No one has seen the salary table with which the government is paying salaries. It’s a fraudulent scheme.

The government requesting the acting Chief Judge, Justice Theophilus Nnamdi Nzeukwu, to resign following a directive by the National Judicial Council (NJC), which ordered the Imo State Governor to reverse Nzeukwu’s illegal appointment, is a lucid pointer to Governor Uzodimma and Imo Government’s negligence of the rule of law.

The question is, why did the government appoint someone who was never qualified as Chief Judge in the first place?

Meanwhile, before then, Imo went for months without a Chief Judge. This saga has really embarrassed the State, pointing to the near-total absence of governance.

Uzodimma must wake up or resign, having been a disaster and failed woefully as Governor and leader of the State.

As the main opposition party in the State, our pledge to Imo people is that we will not relent in delivering a robust opposition.

The party reassures its teeming members, supporters, and the general public that there is no dispute about the party’s leadership structure.

The party, led by the State Chairman, Hon. Austin Nwachukwu, and the leader of the party in the State, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, is focused on delivering a formidable platform for the people of the State to access credible governance.

No amount of distraction from paid agents and fifth columnists will derail this mission.

Power to the People!

Signed:
Lancelot Obiaku
State Publicity Secretary
PDP, Imo State

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