By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—FOLLOWING Wednesday’s dissolution of the Executive Committee of Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, by the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, members of the party in the state yesterday described his action as illegal and a breach of court orders.

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, Chief  Ndidi Okereke and leaders of the party in Abia State who disagreed with Nwodo with reasons he gave for sacking the Executive Committee of the party, stressed that there was no truth in the allegation made by the national leadership of the party.

“The  purported dissolution is ill-informed, scandalous, totally unacceptable and without legal or moral basis,” Okereke said.

The sacked state chairman warned that if the action was not reversed, then the national leadership of the party would be inviting anarchy into the PDP fold in the state, which they had worked hard to keep together.

He said:  “It is on record that our National Chairman, Dr. Okweilieze Nwodo, has painstakingly outlined very laudable objectives which he hopes will form the hallmark of his tenure.  Amongst these are the promises of respect for due process, rule of law and the entrenchment of internal democracy.

“We therefore urge Dr. Nwodo to follow this part of honuor and good conscience by rescinding the purported dissolution of the executive committee of Abia PDP in the interest of our great party and its teeming supporters in Abia state who are greatly dismayed by this curious decision.”

According to him,  when they got the inclination that there were plots to hand over not less than 50 per cent of the party structure to the Abia state Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, in an attempt to woo him to the PDP from the All Progressives Grand Allainace (APGA), where he defected to from Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA), they went to the high court in Owerri, where they obtained an injunction against tampering with the state party executive.

“As believers in due process and the rule of law, it is incumbent on all parties to respect the judiciary and avoid actions capable of prejudicing the outcome of the subsisting suit.  Hence, the purported dissolution is ill-informed and an undue interference on the constitutional duty of the courts handling this matter,” he added.

Speaking further, Okereke who stressed that when it became clear that the national leadership of the party was bent on dissolving the state structure as part of moves to satisfy the governor, they had no other option than to proceed to the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory where an Order was served on the national chairman and some other national officers of the party, dealing with the party state leadership.

“Curiously, instead of respecting the court processes duly served on them, they hurriedly and purportedly dissolved the Abia executive with a document back-dated to 2nd of August, 2010 in order to circumvent the court order.

“It is a known fact that the NWC meeting of the PDP held on Wednesday, the 4th of August, 2010 at the National headquarters.  Where then did the so-called meeting of 2nd of August, 2010 take place?” he asked.

The embattled state chairman who requested to know why the new national leadership of the party, which swore to keep to the tenets of rule of law and due process, has suddenly decided to unilaterally dissolve the Abia State executive without even issuing them a query or engage them in any dialogue over the matter.