By Gloria Ikibah
Ikenga and his G60 Peoples Democratic Party Caucus in the House of Representatives has suddenly back pedalled on their initial announcement to brief the media on the outcome of their meeting which was scheduled to hold on Tuesday at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The G60 is a group of imaginary 60 lawmakers under the auspices of Opposition lawmakers coalition, who had last week, threatened to quit the party if the doctored list of Caretaker Committees in Rivers and 10 other states which was filled with members and loyalist of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is not nullified.
The imaginary 60 members of the group according to our source is not true as only five members claimed to be 60
The PDP caucus had today slated a meeting for 11am at the National Assembly Complex and thereafter the group was to brief the House of Representatives Press Corps by 1pm, but the briefing could not hold while the Caucus briefed the media on the state of security in Nigeria.
The meeting convened by the leader of the Caucus and House Minority Leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda was held on Tuesday at House Committee Room 413, National Assembly Complex Abuja ahead of Thursday’s National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.
But Spokesperson of G60 Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere, lawmaker representing Ideato Federal constituency of Imo state, said the briefing would no longer hold and has been cancelled.
No genuine reason was given for the cancellation as the authentic PDP Caucus had briefed the press and no more fabricated story could fly.
News making the rounds has it that the press secretary of one of the alleged G60 alleged that the meeting with the Minority Leader ended in commotion as lawmakers were sharply divided along the lines of pro and anti-Umar Damgun, the party’s acting National Chairman.
He alleged that the outcome of the meeting said the move to pass vote of confidence on Damagun failed.
He further said: “We are glad that the plan of the pro- Wike group supporting Damagun fall like a pack of cards as we refused all entreaties to perpetuate illegality and stoking of crisis in the party. Our position remains that Damagun must go for someone from North-central to take over and complete Ayu’s tenure.
“Our Party needs total overhaul and reformation. We currently have in the PDP a national leadership that is in bed with the APC and is working extremely hard to hand over the party to the APC. This is quite shameful disheartening. But we won’t fold our hands and let gat happen.
But a very reliable source within the PDP disclosed that the meeting of the caucus went smoothly as they were all on same page.
Also while addressing journalists after the meeting, the Minority Leader, Rep. Chinda said the PDP caucus was united, indivisible committed and out to perform its duty as the watchdog on behalf of the Nigerians.
Rep. Chinda said: “We have just concluded the third meeting of the People’s Democratic Party caucus in the 10th Assembly and have resolved to tell all of us and the world that we are United and we are one and remained United, indivisible, committed and out to perform her duty as the watchdog on behalf of the Nigerian people.
“In the same vein, we x-rayed the security situation in the country and resolved that we can no longer accept the situation where Nigeria is today tagged one life, one minute silence. The government is therefore called upon to immediately take steps to ensure that the security situation in the country is normalised and the caucus has also given a three month ultimatum for government to normalise the security situation in our country..
“After three months, the caucus will take further steps to sensitise and mobilise Nigerians to perhaps take their security in their hands.
The House caucus also agreed to call on all party caucuses, the Board of Trustees, National Executive Committee and the National Working Committee of the party to embark on reconciliation measures with a view to resolving all litigation that are pending and has hindered the party in any way whatsoever from having a substantive national Chairman.
“We call on our leaders in the PDP to continue to demonstrate unconditional loyalty to the party and ensure that the party reclaim her pride of place where she enjoyes the position of the largest party in Africa and to take back the Aso Villa which actually supposed to be our birth right.
“For us, we are going back as we resume the session to commence a strong, virile and purpose driven opposition to give the people a voice in the parliament.
We also call on the Senate Leadership to please take steps to recall our colleague and senior brother, a veteran politician, a parliamentarian per excellence, Abdul Ningi.”
Though members of the G60 were seen during the meeting and briefing seated calming without any agitations or even commotion, one would wonder how true their claim was and why the G60 backed down on the scheduled press conference
