The embattled acting national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Illiya Damagum, may have survived calls for his eviction from office as the National Caucus of the party has threw its weight behind him ahead of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting hoding this Thursday.
This comes as the PDP caucus resolved that he should be allowed to continue in office for the meantime.
Damagum enjoys the backing of minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who made a surprise showing at the PDP caucus meeting, which lasted into the early house of Thursday.
However the caucus, according to the PDP national publicity secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, who read the outcome of the meeting, allowed Damagum to continue acting in office till the next NEC meeting after Thursday’s meeting.
He also said this Thursday’s NEC meeting would have nothing to do with leadership change until the next national convention of the party
Ologunagba said the decision of the caucus was aimed at ensuring reconciliation and unity in the party.
He added that the caucus directed that the party management to set up a discipline and reconciliation committee to reconcile all members.
“NEC meeting will not discuss any change in leaders. Rather, attention is focused on unity and reconciliation.
“Caucus agreed that all congresses in the states and local government should be concluded between June and August this year.
“Caucus agreed on the extension of the constitution review committee of the party to accept new recommendations,” Ologunagba stated.
Recall that PDP governors had in an earlier meeting declared that only the NEC could decide the fate of Damagum.
North-Central PDP stakeholders and some opposition lawmakers had called for Damagum’s resignation to pave way for a chairman from the North-Central region. They had also accused the acting national chairman of not working in the interest of the party.
The statement also reiterated that TETFund has in the past, through similar MOUs, engaged with other notable institutions and platforms worldwide such as the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and a host of others.Through the same mechanism in the earlier stage of the ICT roadmap, the Fund recorded success in building capacity for over 20,000 teaching and non-teaching staff of its Beneficiary Institutions using the ICDL productivity skills certification track for the intervention years 2016 to 2022.It added;
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“This much was acknowledged at the Innovate African Conference 2024 held at Harvard Graduate School of Education in the United States only two weeks ago.“For the avoidance of doubt and in total contrast to what was reported in the publication, we wish to affirm that all TETFund Disbursement Guidelines are approved by Mr. President on the recommendation of the Fund’s Board of Trustees and concurrence of the Honourable Minister of Education in line with the TETFund Act 2011.
“We therefore state unequivocally that at no time did the Fund make any attempt to usurp Mr. President’s powers or that of the Federal Executive Council, or award contracts without due process; as the entire write-up was based on the wrong assumption that contracts were awarded by the Fund.
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