Why I cannot abandon PDP despite the internal crises, by Agbedi

Fred Agbedi is a four-time member of the House of Representatives and one of the most high-ranking members who started his journey far back to the House of Representatives in 1992 in the old Rivers State. He is representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. He spoke to correspondents in Yenagoa on his ambition to represent Bayelsa West Senatorial District, the present state of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and his constituency projects. SAMUEL ESE brings the excerpts:

You have been so long at the National Assembly. May we know some of the leadership roles you have played as a legislator?

I presently lead the PDP caucus members in the House of Representatives. I also lead the South-South caucus of the House of Representatives. I also preside over the Bayelsa State caucus of the House of Representatives and I’m the chairman House Committee on the House of Representatives as a caucus leader of the PDP and as a very stable politician who has migrated across the desert and a leader of the PDP both working under the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and working as a caucus leader of the PDP, performing my role as a leader at the national level under the leadership of Turaki SAN, the interim national working committee chairman of the PDP.

It is being said by many observers that there is crisis in the PDP. How deep is the crisis?

You are all aware of the PDP problems, you are also aware of various judgements of both the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court which went as far as declaring the Ibadan Convention null and void, believing it was a product of disobedience to a lawful court order, and to the extent that the judiciary will not encourage actions that will not obey lawful judgements and orders of the court.

Both the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court, in their separate decisions, annulled the Ibaban Convention, which elected the leadership of Turaki SAN as substantive national executive committee of the PDP. You are aware that both at the Appeal and Supreme Court levels the judgements held at the time Ajibade SAN, who is the erstwhile legal adviser of the PDP, along with four others were suspended and the ambassador led committee validated. That is where the PDP does not have a leadership arose from. So, we are a party without a head, but with a tail and a body, hence the former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, took over the leadership of the party and convened the BOT and thereafter, nominated an interim National Working Committee, which was later communicated to the national executive council meeting of the PDP. Let me also use this opportunity to inform you that even though there is no National Working Committee as per the Supreme Court judgement, there are statutory members of the executive committee of the party who are referred to as members of NEC. I happen to be one of them by being a member of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives nominated 21 persons across the zones to represent the House of Representatives in the executive committee of the PDP, so also the Senate and then members of BOT, members of the national executive committee of the party as well as other statutory bodies, which include former ministers, and governors amongst others.

So, the BOT, by the signature of over two-thirds of NEC and NWC sat to ratify the decision of the BOT which is the conscience of the party. That is how the interim national working committee of 13 people led by Tamu Turaki SAN was birthed and that is presently the leadership of the PDP.

The party I hold so dear to my heart and in which I am also one of the leaders and, of course, that is the party of which I am running for the Senate for Bayelsa West Senatorial District having spent over a decade in the House of the Representatives.

I believe that I have rendered service to the Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency. I have made my mark in the House of Representatives; I have been accorded my due and privileges in the House of Representatives and I feel that it is time to migrate from the Green Chamber to the Red Chamber in the bi-cameral legislature as it is practiced in the Federal Republic of Nigeria

So here I am. I secured my form in the PDP, completed my form in the PDP, returned my form and I was screened on the 19th of May by the screening committee that was sent from Abuja to screen contestants for the forthcoming 2027 elections and I have been so cleared to contest.

I’m also aware that there is no other person that bought form to run for the Senate in the Bayelsa West Senatorial District against me and so to that extent and to this present moment, I stand as an unopposed candidate and by that as a consensus candidate as it were.

You know our Electoral Law 2026 provides for two options, consensus or direct primary which some us we opposed because the options we used to have which were self-administrative decisions of the parties would have been the three options, consensus, direct and indirect primaries.

But as you know, in the legislature, the majority will have their say and the minority will have their way. We did support the decision of the clause that provides for indirect primaries, but the majority have their way and we are left to consensus or direct primaries and as it is, I am putting my preparations together for January 16th, 2027 as it’s been prescribed by the INEC as the day the presidential election and the National Assembly election shall hold.

What keeps you in the PDP, even though it is factionalised?

My confidence one, is the judgement of the Appeal Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; confidence two, the judgement of the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; confidence three is if Wike has a faction and is purportedly claiming that he’s the leader of the party to the extent that he could not sponsor anybody by himself in his personal PDP, it means that he has no party and there are no factions.

There are two factions that sold forms in Bayelsa State. How concerned are you about that?

You are aware that Solomon Agwana was elected in a congress long before the issues even arose, and so the question to determine is, at one point did George Turnar and Wike exist? And the truth of the matter is that if the officers who claimed they birthed that faction were suspended legitimately, upheld by court and, of course, whatever stands on that platform does not exist, is not known to law.