NEW LEADERSHIP: Akinwonmi emerges as PDP Acting National Chairman

By Charles Segun Adegbite

The Peoples' Democratic Party, PDP, has appointed Elder Yemi Akinwonmi as the acting national chairman.

Akinwonmi who will now lead the PDP National Working Committee, NWC, of the party, was until this appointment, the Deputy National Chairman (South),  of Nigeria's main opposition party.

The party spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, disclosed this new development after the National Working Committee closed door meeting in Abuja on Thursday.

With this appointment, Akinwonmi replaced the then embattled national chairman, Uche Secondus, who was on Monday ordered by a Rivers State High Court not to parade himself as the national chairman of the PDP.

The appointment of an acting chairman became inevitable in view of the intra-party crisis over claim to its leadership, which  had led to legal action, before the court judgement.

Speaking to journalists after the appointment, Ologbondiyan said: “Elder Yemi Akinwonmi was unanimously affirmed as Acting National Chairman."

According to him, Section 45 (2) of the PDP Constitution (as amended) says in the absence of the national chairman, the deputy national chairman from the region as the national chairman will act in that position.

“We will be holding our caucus and another NWC meeting tomorrow preparatory to holding our National Executive Council meeting at 12 ‘O’clock on Saturday,” he disclosed.