Nigeria’s major opposition party,
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last weekend elected a new set of leaders
who will run the affairs of the party for the next four years.
The new party officials are
mostly people with experience in local and state politics.
These are their profiles:
Uche Secondus (National Chairman)
Mr. Secondus has been in politics
for 39 years He joined politics in 1978 during the Second Republic as the youth
leader, in Rivers, for the now-defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. He later
became the state publicity secretary of another national party, the National
Republican Convention, NRC, from 1993 to 1998.
Mr. Secondus became the acting
national chairman of the PDP in 2015 after the resignation of the then
chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, following the party’s defeat in that year’s
presidential election. Before then, he was the party’s deputy national
chairman.
As a businessman, he is said to
have interest in Intels Nigeria Limited, a company that is linked to Nigeria’s
former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. The company has been having running
battles of late with the Nigerian government.
The new PDP leader, like most of
his fellow party men, have had brushes with the country’s anti-graft agency,
the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, since Muhammadu Buhari
became president. He was detained by the EFCC in 2016 for “illegally” receiving
on behalf of the PDP 23 luxury vehicles valued at N310 million from the
controversial businessman, Jide Omokore.
The court later declared his
arrest as being unlawful and awarded N10 million damages against the EFCC.
During the May 2016 botched Port
Harcourt convention, Mr. Secondus wanted to contest for the deputy national
chairman of the PDP. But he changed his mind that year and went after the
party’s top job.
Yemi Akinwonmi (Deputy National
Chairman — South)
Born on January 15, 1955 in Ijebu
Ode, Ogun state, Mr. Akinwonmi attended the University of Benin and was
appointed Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, under Governor
Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State.
Before then, he served as the
Ogun State Secretary of the Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN, before leading 3,250
members of the party to defect to the PDP.
Mr. Akinwonmi was on April 11,
2011 arraigned alongside six others before a magistrate court in Akure Ondo
State, over an attempt to violently disrupt the National Assembly elections
held on April 9.
The prosecutor, Isah Atangbe,
told the court that the accused were arrested by the police at Araromi estate
in Ore, Ondo State, around 10 a.m on 9 April, when the National Assembly
election had already started.
He said the suspects were
arraigned on a five-count charge of being in possession of various dangerous
items for the purpose of terrorising members of the public and disturbing
public peace, contrary to section 516 of the criminal code, Cap 30 laws of Ondo
State.
Babawo Gamawa (Deputy National
Chairman– North)
Born on February 2, 1966, he
obtained a national diploma from the University of Jos, Plateau State.
Mr. Gamawa served as the Speaker,
Bauchi State House of Assembly, and was picked by former Governor Isa Yuguda to
serve as deputy governor, following the impeachment of the deputy governor at
the time, the late Garba Gadi.
Mr. Gamawa was also elected
senator to represent Bauchi North constituency in the Nigerian Senate in 2011.
He was defeated by the candidate
of the APC candidate, Suleiman Nazif, in the 2015 elections.
Umar Tsauri (National Secretary)
Ibrahim Umar Tsauri was born in
Katsina on April 9, 1952.
He was elected senator to
represent Katsina Central from 2003 to 2007. He also served as a director and
was number 3 in hierarchy in the presidential campaign office of former
President Goodluck Jonathan in the run up to the 2015 election.
Emmanuel Agbo (Deputy National
Secretary)
Emmanuel Agbo was a state
chairman of the PDP in Benue.
Mr. Agbo was also the chairman of
Conference of PDP Chairmen while he held sway as Benue state chairman of the
party.
Aribisala Adewale (National
Treasurer)
He was elected member, House of
Representatives to represent Oye/ Ikole federal constituency of Ekiti State
from 2007 to 2011. He was also a PDP governorship aspirant in Ekiti state in
the run up to the 2014 election that eventually turned up incumbent Governor
Ayo Fayose. Mr. Fayose defeated the then incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi of
the APC.
Abdullahi Maibasira (National
Financial Secretary)
Mr. Maibasira, a former National
Youth Leader of the PDP was born in Minna Niger state on January 30, 1983.
He attended Kings College, Lagos;
Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto; and the Federal University of Technology,
Minna, where he graduated in 2011.
Mr. Maibasira also served as the
Director of Youth Mobilisation in the campaign office of President Goodluck
Jonathan in the run up to the 2015 general elections.
Irona Gerald (Deputy financial
Secretary)
Irona Gerald is from Imo state,
and is a chemical engineer by training. He was born on August 1, 1966.
Mr. Gerald ventured into politics
early in life and was elected for two terms as a councilor, representing Oguta
Ward A in 1996 and 1997 respectively.
In 1998, he became the youngest
state secretary of All Peoples party, APP, which later became All Nigeria
Peoples Party, ANPP.
In 1999, Mr. Gerald contested and
won a seat in the Imo State House of Assembly to represent Oguta State
Constituency.
During the period, he was
appointed chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum, Environment and Energy,
a position he used to conceptualise, initiate and midwife the first ever
Memorandum of Understanding between Oil Companies operating in Imo State and
their host Communities.
He was also appointed member,
presidential committee on verification of oil wells in the Niger Delta.
He was later appointed the
Chairman, Transition Committee of Oguta LGA in 2003 and subsequently became the
first chairman of the local government area when he was elected unopposed in
2004.
Mr. Gerald later in 2011
contested and won election to represent Oguta/Ohaji Egbema Oru West Federal
Constituency in the House of Representatives.
Austin Akabondu (National
organizing Secretary)
Mr. Akabondu, from Abia State, is
a retired army lieutenant colonel. He is a former minister of state for defence
under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. Before then, he was
appointed the chairman of the board of the University Teaching Hospital,
Ibadan, in 2013.
He also served as the national
Vice Chairman, South-east of the PDP.
Hassan Yakubu (Deputy National
Organising Secretary)
Mr. Yakubu, a lawyer, was the
legal adviser of the Nasarawa state chapter of the PDP.
He also once aspired to become
the state chairman of the party, in the congress held last year but lost to a
former state lawmaker, Francis Orogu.
Kola Ologbondiyan (National
Publicity Secretary)
Mr. Ologbondiyan hails from
western senatorial district of Kogi State.
Until 2015, he was the special
adviser on media and publicity to former Senate President, David Mark.
A graduate of Mass Communication
from the University of Lagos, he worked with ThisDay newspaper where he rose
through the ranks to become its group political editor, and then deputy editor
of the daily title.
He covered beats such as the
Presidency, National Assembly, State Government Houses and political parties.
Diran Odeyemi (Deputy National
Publicity Secretary
Mr. Odeyemi was a special
assistant to Governor Alao Akala of Oyo State on communications and media
matters and he also served in the same capacity for Iyiola Omisore when he
contested to be the governor of Osun.
Mr. Odeyemi also served as the
spokesperson of the PDP in Osun state.
Emmanuel Enoidem (National Legal
Adviser)
Mr. Enoidem served as a
commissioner in Akwa Ibom for nine years, traversing the administrations of
former Governor Godswill Akpabio and that of current governor, Udom Emmanuel.
He resigned as a member of the
state cabinet to run for the office of National Legal Adviser of the PDP.
Feelers from the PDP suggests
that he left the cabinet and joined the PDP race on the advice of Mr. Akpabio.
Adamu Mustapha (National Auditor)
Nothing much is known about the
new National Auditor of the PDP. Mr. Mustapha is from Yobe State and has been a
stalwart of the party in the North-east. He served in the campaign office of
President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 election.
Mariya Waziri (National Woman
Leader)
Mrs. Waziri, from Kebbi state,
emerged as the new National Woman Leader of the PDP after a keenly contested
battle with another strong candidate, Baraka Sani, from Kano.
Mrs. Waziri was the zonal woman
leader of the PDP for the North-west region. She was also a member of the
National Conference put in place by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.
Udeh Okoye (National Youth
Leader)
Mr. Udeh Okoye was born on May
28, 1978 in Ohumagu Agbogugu village in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu
State.
He attended Central School
Akegbe-Ugwu for his primary education, Community Secondary School Obuoffia and
University of Port Harcourt respectively. He studied Political Science and
Administrative Studies.
In 2006, Mr. Okoye became the
leader of Enugu State Youth Coalition and in 2009, he became the National
President of South-east Youth Movement.
He contested and won election as
a member of the Enugu State House of Assembly in 2011. He was made the leader
of the assembly from 2011 to 2015, despite being a first timer and the youngest
member at the time.
He was re-elected as a state
lawmaker in 2015 and until his election as National Youth Leader of the PDP, he
was the chairman house committee on works, lands, housing and urban
development.
Umar Babangida Maina (Deputy
National Youth leader)
Mr. Maina is from Adamawa state
and was one of the youngest candidates in the 2015 general elections. He
contested for Mubi North, Mubi South Maiha seat of the federal house of
representatives. He was also part of the PDP national youth committee for the
2015 presidential election.
Mr. Maina chairs the Namadi Sambo
North-east Youth Forum and holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business
Administration and Management from American Liberty University, and an MSc in
International Relations from the University of Abuja.
He is currently a director on the
board of a Micro finance bank in Abuja.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com