 Governor Ben Ayade and the APC take over PDP secretariat in Cross River and National Chairman of the People's Democratic Party, PDP Uche Secundice urges prayers for Nigeria. Well, this is Plus Politics and I am Mary-Anna Corbyn. A property which housed the People's Democratic Party PDP secretariat in Cross River State was on Sunday or Saturday morning painted into the all-progressive Congress APC colours. The building popularly known as the PDP secretariat was cordoned off by heavily armed security operatives while the workers continued the work. This development took place days after the Governor Ben Ayade defected to the APC. In reaction to this, the PDP said the invasion was a form of criminal trespass and called on the leadership of the APC to reject the Governor's behaviour and allow the PDP the use of its property. Well, joining me to have this conversation is Venash's EKM, he's a former PDP publicity secretary and Basita, who is the publicity secretary of the APC in Cross River State. Thank you very much gentlemen for joining us. Thank you for having me. All right. Thank you again for having me. All right. So I'm going to start with the APC spokesperson here. Currently, according to the PDP, they're saying that the properties, especially vital documents that were contained in that building, records of the party, have either been vandalised or in the custody of the Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, I'm wondering why that building was taken over by the APC in the first place, because we all know that that building belonged to the PDP. Let me start by saying that while we are experiencing from the PDP, we're going to turn by some person to try and work when none exists. Okay? And that translates to asking the question, where has PDP ever elected any structure in Cross River State? As far as I know, that building has been a rented apartment that was built for by the Executive Minister, Professor Ben Ayade, the Governor of Cross River State, and the Leader of the APC in Cross River State. So if by virtue of the last social inspection of the Executive Minister and a similar supporter, they didn't speak to reclaim what he has been paying for. I don't think there should be any spilled milk over that. I think it also falls for the PDP to restructure that. If only they want to leave out their disposition on the position of party because for restructuring, it's for them to restructure that and see how to have space in the political landscape of Cross River. And one of such strategies is for them to look for another secretariat and not to come and go for what was not actually belong to them. Okay. I have a very interesting question for you, Mr Basita. There was a press release by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Cross River State, Mr Christianita, and I'd like to quote it directly. He said the building that was PDP's former... He said that he referred to that building as the PDP's former secretariat, meaning that it's giving credence of sorts that that building of course obviously used to house the PDP and has been known as the PDP Secretariat. And then he said that it is now that of the APC. Now his reasons just like you gave was that the rent due for that building was paid or renewed three months ago by Governor Ben Ayade, who is the Governor of Cross River State, who was a PDP governor. So my question is, Mr Issa, did the governor pay for that building as a PDP member, as the governor of Cross River State, or was he paying for it as a member of the APC that he was about to become to? Yeah, it's also related to say that having moved from the PDP, everything about the governor has moved. Everything entirely has moved. It's like including the apartment, how to speak. And like I said, I was said earlier, it was tool to inform and stop the PDP that having dispensers from the PDP to APC, everything about the PDP, this is to exist. Except for those who still hang around, it may say, yeah, so to speak. But it's all that we who must appreciate, have thought that, exactly what I say, exactly what I say, this peaceful man and his post to politics with ethics, his post to politics with ethics, and his post to the land of divinity. Yeah, we make tonight about the cost and citizens of the PDP. So you're telling me that, so you're telling me that because a governor, a sitting governor has moved to another political party, that political party that he used to belong to, should this, you know, completely not exist in the state again. Is that what, is that the picture you're trying to paint? Because many people have moved, many people have decammed to other political parties and have not taken over the apartheid secretariat. Why is this the case across the state? We shouldn't exist at the instance of a past glory. We shouldn't exist, you know, still finding the proper place. What gives a governor the power to make another political party that has members other than him, seem to say that that party should not exist? What gives that governor the powers? He's the governor of the state, not the owner of the political party, is he? We shouldn't exist, we shouldn't exist, we shouldn't exist at the instance of occupying what does not actually belong to them. That is what I mean by... Okay, I have one more question for you before I go to Vinash as you came. Before Ben Ayade became a senator in Cross River State, or before he even became a governor of Cross River State, was that secretariat not a PDP secretariat? I think that was former. Oh, it's a yes or no answer for me, please. No, no, no, it's actually a blanket, like that. I think it goes for some level of expression of sentiment, okay, if you don't mind. And that is to the respect, like I said earlier, for the respect that the PDP should reach not to die. Now, recently I had a meeting yesterday, the way I had a meeting, I think I said that I would wish not to die, I think, you know, the 23, so to speak. So that should also include looking for not a secretariat. Okay, all right, I'm going to come to you Vinash as... I want to go back to my first question, Mr. E came. The PDP is alleging that certain of their properties that were in that building, including sensitive documents, either have been destroyed or in the custody of the governor. Why do you think that the governor would want to keep sensitive documents that belong to the PDP? I mean, the fact that you've not been able to gain entry into that building, this could all be speculative. This is actually comical, but it's also a very new law in the annals of the history of the policies of parties and politics in cross-eversity, to say the least. Like you rightly said, I think people have been decamping over time. I would never have heard this kind of ridiculous thing. Secondly, let me say that actually we have a party, KTK committee in place and there's a public secretary. I wish actually that they could have been, she would have been in a position to respond to much of what you're asking. A bit as it may, what I can say is that for the same reason, to answer directly your question, for the same reason, that the governor illegally, through his aides and agents, took over the PDP secretaries and pretends to make it an APC secretariat for the same reason that he probably is keeping our documents. And to put this in perspective, that is the secretariat PDP has used for about 20, 21 years. PDP has been in that secretariat since August 1999, I guess, and then 1999 or 2000, but I think those facts are immaterial. But we have been consistently in that secretariat and that fact is not in dispute. The current tendency is recited, what's paid for is recited for PDP. The landlady or the landlords or the managers of the property have so indicated. We have filed all this for the authorities. It is unfortunate really that the governor, who is supposed to maintain peace, the chief security officer of the state, will descend to this level in an attempt to draw out the PDP because since his defection, we have more been in the celebration mood for his departure than money. So I think he sought to provoke the PDP into something that may generate crisis. But being very matured, with very matured persons at the hems of affairs, the immediate past deputy governor of the state is the ketika committee chairman of the party. About two commissioners in the current Ayades government, they are all members of the PDP ketika committee and they have decided to keep a cool head and to follow due process in our response to the unwarranted provocation that this has meant to the PDP. Having said that, that is not to say we are going to renaissance on our rights for even a second. We all know that the courts have been in some unions within the judicial system have been on a strike and so it's not easy to seek a legitimate or legal redress. That is the only reason they can see pretend that their action has any basis in substance. We hope that as soon as the judiciary is in place who will seek redress as we should and all consequential damages would be arising from their illegal occupation of our secretariat. That's the position I can state for now from my knowledge of the facts relating to this issue. Well, let me just take you to... Let me draw your attention to a statement released by the chief secretary again to Govnai Adi. In that statement, he claimed that the PDP calls about this whole building, the fact that you are saying that this building was illegally taken over, that he's calling it a tissue of lies and a cocktail of fraudulent claims to court him directly. And he referred to the PDP led by Fyokobom, who was the former deputy governor under Lia Limoke. He says that that particular committee is driven by greed and laziness and it is a tactless and clueless leadership. And I'm curious to understand why the chief secretary would write that because he's claims for anyone who doesn't really know the story. They're saying that the PDP is lying and of course I want to understand why would the governor say make these claims if he doesn't have any fact or any proof as to that building belonging to the PDP? Well, we're happy that that's a kind of reaction came from the chief secretary to the government of Kosovo State and not the APC. That clearly ties the brigand age orchestrated on the PDP secretariat to government. Otherwise, we should have been hearing from the APC. Having said that, the ketica committee for your information and for the information of the general public was put in place only on Friday and this brigand age took place on Saturday. So I do not know whether the chief secretary, Mr. Ita, is a diviner or for some reason is a voodoo practitioner for him to declare a committee headed by a next world deputy governor. Current serving commissioners in a government. A professor in the University of Calabar who happens to also be a member of the PDP. A lawyer who was formerly an attorney general of the state over a long period. And other very prominent citizens of Kosovo State who are members of the PDP to declare them incompetent by his own judgment. That tells you the ridiculous level they are prepared to go. Even when they have served less, they've not even occupied the office, but he has declared that they are incompetent. That's, I leave that judgment to himself and to the general public. What is the state of this? I'm sorry to call you to say yes. I'm sorry to cut you off. But what is the state of the PDP right now in Kosovo? Because there have been several claims by the APC and of course the governor that the PDP has been left in shambles to lick their wounds and that's why you're crying wolf. But what is the state of the PDP? Because prior to now there have been divisions within the party with the elections that happened where a member of the House of Representatives was supposed to take a position in the Senate. And that has been a drag on for so long. And the governor has also pointed out the fact that he was not allowed to be the leader of his party. Could this have brought the party to shambles? What exactly is the state of things right now? Nothing can be further from the truth than such an allegation. If anybody is crying wolf at all, it is the APC or sorry, the government of the day that's crying wolf. Because what they expected, the reaction they expected from the PDP is not what they have seen. We have responded with maturity because you don't join a madman. I mean, if a naked madman pursues you on the street or seizes your clothes, as they say, and you decide to pursue him naked, you will also, nobody will know the difference between you and the madman. So we have decided not to answer them. What we have decided is that we will follow the process to recover our secretariat. Because everybody knows that that's our secretariat. We have the receipts, the landlord, or the administrators of the estate have stated clearly that they do not know the APC as their tenants. It is only the PDP they know as their tenant. And we have been in occupation of that premises consistently, continuously, for the past at least 20 years. So I think whoever is lying is clear here. Now, having said that, the PDP had a very mammoth rally yesterday. We're supposed to have a meeting of stakeholders, but the meeting turned out to be a rally. I'm sure some media houses have already displayed that they are all over the social media. And the ginger are frightened by this. I think we lost connection there, Mr. Ikem, for a bit. But let me go back to Basita. Basita, quickly, I want to talk more about this issue of the secretariat. Where was the APC secretariat before the governor moved to the APC? There obviously is a secretariat in Calabar, I'm sure. Is that place no longer conducive for the APC? Why is the PDP secretariat now more seemingly convenient for the APC to take over? Logically speaking, logically speaking, every movement goes with growth and expansion. We know even by little days, we hear of the story of the movement of the Israelite into Pakistan, and that's where it's expansion and growth. So the issue about APC in Kosovo state is not an exception. When the discussion has been decided to come in, it means that the APC moves from point three to point B and so on and so forth. So APC's expansion project moved from its own party secretary that it has had for so long to the opposition's secretariat. I'm going to explain to you the former APC, the APC secretariat, that there is one being, you know, prepared on a rush to be the chapter, one of the chapter secretary of the Kosovo state. So that means that the former PDP secretariat will not be occupied by the APC secretariat. I know it is only possible when myself of logic, to the logic test. For somebody to come and get it, at this point, you realize that you've got to let it be, okay? I think we'll have surely to finish the PDP. No, I'm just, I'm sorry. When the APC, the PDP secretariat has been there, let's say I've never looked the way of the party. I mean it's possible. We have now realized that even the secretary was not founding the party, but all the things that have been there in fact, over time. So I will then all, you know, make them to the fact that the secretariat will be occupied by the PDP. This is the practice of logic. Then you know, in nothing, logic, the principle of logic, are a monster that it is possible in every sense of it. What does the national, I mean, I know that you might not be able to give me this answer, but I'll ask it anyway. What does the PDP national working committee think about this move, this very interesting move by the governor of Khrushchev estate, by taking over another political party's secretariat because he is the governor? The national secretariat will touch on it in two weeks, in the next position. And as the leader of the party in the state, what has been done represent the opinion of the interests of the APC? Where are you going to bring them? Okay. All right, interesting. Back to you, Mr. Venasah. This is my last question because of time. You had said earlier on that the PDP would not respond in like manner to the APC and the governor of Khrushchev estate that you would go through due process. But what's the way forward for the PDP in this state? Of course, you're going to face more huddles. If this is just the first, there's going to be more coming in the future. How do you, as a party that was once the party in leadership, how are you going to be able to move ahead with all that is ahead of you, especially with the governor starting up by taking over your secretariat? Yeah, thank you very much. We are going to move ahead like we are moving on with this. We are happy with this very early signal. And we're going to respond with maturity. We have been in government. We understand the mood of our people. We are not going to get involved with juvenile actions like what the governor and his team is attempting to embark on to draw us out into a crisis. Like they say, the hood doesn't make the monk. A secretariat doesn't make the party. Hello? Yes. A secretariat doesn't make the party. Like I said before, we had a very mammoth rally yesterday and we are raving to go. Our critical committee is in place and has swung into action. Who do they need for? We are putting our party back together without the governor. And we are moving on as if the governor's departure means nothing to us and because it does not. I can tell you that as of today, we have already acquired a bigger and more special secretariat. But that does not mean that we'll consider a right even for a second over the other secretariat. Because we did that because we don't want to be distracted. We are convinced that whatever they are trying to do is to distract us from the reorganization of the party that we have already embarked on. And we are confident that that will take us through the process of re-engineering the party towards 2023. Nothing can distract us, nothing absolutely. Because we don't even need this particular governor because he has been too much of a distraction on the party. Like you mentioned the idea of the last election we had. You can see the unnecessary distraction that his presence has brought because the governor refuses to be democratic. Refuses to accept when he loses and so he will go on out and do everything possible to ensure that rather than accept the feat of his candidate, even within the party, he would rather everything goes down to the opposition. So that's where we are. So for us, having met yesterday at stakeholder level, we have seen clearly where they are going and we refuse to be distracted by their distractions. All right, I want to say thank you. Fortunately, we have to go. Thank you very much. Venash as it came in as a former publicity secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Costa Rica State and Basitat. It is the publicity secretary for the All Progressive Congress APC in Costa Rica State. Thank you for speaking with us, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, well, thank you all for staying with us. We'll take a short break now and when we return, the People's Democratic Party has a solution to the challenges that Nigeria faces. We'll be right back and then you'll find out.