The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has berated the acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Umar Damagum and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, over uncomplimentary remarks on Edwin Clark.
DAILY POST reports that Clark had called on the leadership of PDP to expel Wike from the party due to his alleged anti-party activities.
The President of IYC, Dr Theophilus Alaye, said in a statement issued Thursday that Clark was an uncommon and very courageous leader who commands national respect and wide acceptance, particularly among the Ijaws and the people of the Niger Delta.
He stressed that the elder statesman stands out as one of the few leaders who call a spade a spade.
Alaye accused Damagum of working with Wike to destroy the party, as evident in his covert and overt actions with people who are neither here nor there but have become a sell-out to destroy the party.
He said his failure to wield the big stick against such dissident members was a pointer to his intention to destroy PDP.
He added that if the national chairman had been concerned about the poor electoral fortunes of PDP since 2015, he would have adopted drastic measures to weed out the likes of Wike.
Alaye believed that Damagum’s attack on Clark clearly showed that he had no interest in rebuilding and strengthening PDP as the main opposition party to recapture power at the centre.
IYC noted that Wike should be grateful to the Ijaws for making it possible for him to come this far in politics, saying that if they had known him as an ingrate, they would not have supported him.
Alaye noted: “Wike lacks moral standing based on his attacks on former President Muhammadu Buhari and APC, even Bola Tinubu, before the 2023 presidential election as governor; for him to accept a ministerial appointment controlled by the party he so condemned speaks volumes of his low rating.”
