As Battle For PDP’s Soul Shifts To NASS...Reps Brawl Over Baraje’s Visit To NASS By: Our Correspondents on September 18, 2013 - 3:32am inShare As exclusively reported by LEADERSHIP yesterday that the battle for the sould of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would be shifted to the National Assembly, a courtesy visit by the Kawu Baraje-led PDP National Working Committee to the National Assembly yesterday turned a hall of the House of Representatives into a boxing arena, as members loyal to the two factions of the party engaged in a physical combat to express their differences. The struggle started when legislators loyal to the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP refused to allow the visiting Baraje-led G-7 governors the opportunity to state their mission. The G-7 governors are Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Ahmed Abdulfatah ( Kwara), Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto). Shortly after the delegation took their seats at the 028 Conference Room, where the speaker and the leadership of the House were seated, a Bayelsa State lawmaker, Hon. Henry Daniel-Ofongo, walked in and started asking loudly if all the people seated in the room were members of the PDP. He then moved to the front row where the G-7 governors and Baraje’s NWC were seated and started shouting “point of order”, which the speaker ignored. At this point, Hon. Dakuku Peterside from Rivers State walked up to him and started trying to calm him down but, instead of the desired effect, Daniel-Ofongo put his phone in his pocket, took off his jacket and shoved Peterside aside. The room then erupted into chaos, with their colleagues trying to pull them apart to no avail. While all this was going on, Hon. Betty Apiafi from Rivers State was shouting and saying, “This is what they want, this is what they want. They should go outside and hold their meetings”. After the fighting lawmakers were separated, the meeting turned into a rowdy session and, in a desperate attempt to restore normalcy in the room, the MC called on the leader of the House, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, to give the welcome address. After her speech in which she expressed hope that the meeting would be the “beginning of the end of the crisis in the party”, the MC then introduced Baraje to state his mission to the House. But he was to give an inaudible speech, as lawmakers loyal to Tukur hit microphones and tables all through the duration of his speech, occasionally breaking into chants of “PDP Tukur; Tukur, PDP, Bamanga Tukur”. These members included Kingsley Chinda, Kaka Kyari, Linus Okorie, Dan Asuquo, Emmanuel Ekong, Patrick Asadu, Friday Itulah and Bitrus Kaze. In another section of the hall, the women leader of the Baraje faction, former House of Representatives member Binta Masi Garba, engaged in another fight with a member from Oyo State, Hon. Afeez Adelowo, and tore his gown in the process. In his address, Speaker Tambuwal called for caution by both parties, saying that national interest should be put before personal interest and efforts should be made to stop “overheating the polity”. “I wish to caution also that Nigerians need a peaceful atmosphere to conduct their lives and business endeavours. We card-carrying members of political parties contribute not more than 25 per cent of the population of this great country. We must therefore abstain from heating up the polity unnecessarily; we must not take the rest of Nigerians for granted. We must not overreach our goodwill and we must not overtask the patience of Nigerians. Let us therefore make conscious efforts to allow national interest take the driving seat and not our personal ambitions,” he said. In a briefing after the event, leader of the G lawmakers, Hon. Andrew Uchendu (PDP, Rivers) argued that it was the kind of “display of lawlessness and impunity that led to the split of the party”. Uchendu explained that the delegation came on the invitation of the faction loyal to the Baraje-led PDP to brief them on issues that led to the break-up and the status of the reconciliation moves by the two factions. He explained: “G members of the House of Reps, remember we have been on recess, consulted among ourselves and felt that we should support what our governors are doing and, in any case, it will be necessary for them to come forward and brief us because we were on recess and today is the first day of our resumption. And before parliament, Mr Speaker read a letter that Baraje-led National Working Committee was to address and brief members of the House that had already endorsed what they were doing. “What our leaders have been complaining of -- reign of impunity, lawlessness, lack of tolerance. All of us can’t see things from the same prism. It would have made greater sense if they had allowed the Baraje-led National Working Committee to brief those who are loyal to them. But in their true character, in the condemnation of all of us, they came in to disrupt the procedures but, fortunately, Baraje went ahead to brief all of us. “But what you saw today is just reign of impunity that has pervaded the entire fabric of our polity, and things cannot be allowed to continue like this; there must be a new redirection and this is what the Baraje-led National Working Committee is out to achieve”. “PDP now minority in the House” He also added that the number of Baraje faction lawmakers has increased to 108 from the initial number of 57. With members of the APC standing at 157 and new PDP 108, the number of Tukur faction members now stands at 59, putting it at minority. G-7 govs, Baraje meet Mark, reject Jonathan’s ‘third term’ plan Chairman of the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Abubakar Kawu Baraje along with the seven governors (G7) of the splinter PDP yesterday met with the Senate president, David Mark. They made a key demand: that President Goodluck Jonathan must drop his “third term” plan. The new PDP’s meeting with the Senate president was a follow-up to Monday night’s strategy meeting between the leadership and supporters of the splinter PDP. LEADERSHIP learnt that the chairman of the mainstream PDP, Bamanga Tukur, along with the party leadership at the last-minute shelved its scheduled meeting with the National Assembly as a result of Baraje and the G-7 meeting. A source from the Tukur camp however insisted that the shelved meeting was not connected with the visit of the Baraje-led faction. He cited “other engagements” as reasons. Baraje, at the meeting with Mark, listed the demands of the new PDP. They included the recall of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State from suspension as well as his recognition as the elected chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF). The group also demanded the reversal of the dissolution of the party executives in Rivers and Adamawa states; removal of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as national chairman of the party; strict adherence to party constitution and total objection to the “third term” allegedly being pursued by President Goodluck Jonathan “from the back door”. Again, Baraje said the PDP’s chances were threatened in the run-up to the 2015 general elections. “This group is fighting to ensure no impunity and for the protection of democracy. If we (PDP) continue like this, I don’t think the PDP can win any election henceforth,” Baraje said on behalf of the G-7 governors. The Senate president told the new PDP delegation that he would stand for justice and equity. “Even if you have a knife in my head, I will stand for justice, fairness and equity,” Mark told warring factions of the PDP, urging them to come together and uphold a strong and united party. He said he would remain in the PDP and would not live to see a fallen party, just as he pleaded with the party faithful that whatever happened they must not abandon the ship. “We are stronger and better as one big , strong and united party. We need to work together and make our democracy sustainable,” Mark said. In the National Assembly, Senator Mark stated that the lawmakers elected on the platform of the party would remain united and cohesive, saying that what makes for the good of the nation and her citizens would be their watchword. To this end, he maintained that the leadership of the National Assembly has no intention to declare any seat of the senators or House of Representative members vacant on account of the crisis, hoping that the issues would be resolved amicably soon. Drama as Tukur faction Reps protest alleged selective treatment After Speaker Tambuwal had read notice of the visit, which was conveyed in a letter addressed to the speaker, it was greeted by shouts of “no, no, no”, as representatives loyal to the Bamanga Tukur-led faction expressed their disagreement with the decision. When, after waiting a few minutes the protests had not died down, the speaker moved on to the next business of the day but could not proceed as members loyal to the Baraje faction had now joined in the protest, shouting “yes, yes, yes”, in reply to the rejection by the other faction. After several consultations among members and with the speaker, it was discovered that the Tukur-led faction was protesting against the speaker’s failure to read a similar correspondence from their leader, Bamanga Tukur. The issue was however laid to rest when the speaker explained that the letter had been withdrawn before the sitting commenced, thereby making it unnecessary to announce it on the floor. After the chief whip, acting on the instruction of the speaker, had brought the House to order, Tambuwal said, “I think I need to clarify two points. One, there was a communication from our leader, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, on the same issue -- that he wanted to come and also address the House -- but he withdrew his letter only this morning and that’s why I did not read it. The whole of this was not supposed to take place on the floor of the House; it is a PDP caucus issue.” Reps pass motion of confidence on Tambuwal Meanwhile, in a bid to close the door of speculations about legislators making impeachment moves against the speaker, members of the House of Representatives have passed a vote of confidence on the Tambuwal-led leadership of the House of Representatives. This was after the rowdy session witnessed in the House. Raising a motion to that effect, Hon. Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) noted that in the light of the events that led to the split of PDP and other events that took place after then, it was important to categorically express the position of the House of Representatives on the leadership of the House. He stated the commitment of the House to its leadership, saying they “remain firm and focused” and “will not allow anyone to create bad blood between the leadership and members of the House as presently constituted”. Also in the day’s session, leader of minority parties, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, officially announced the emergence of the All Progressives Congress, APC, a merger of opposition parties in the country. He therefore urged the clerk to open a register for its members to sign in for plenary sessions. Mark lists conditions for national conference Following the clamour for a sovereign national conference (SNC) in select quarters in the country, Senate president David Mark yesterday listed conditions for convening of the conference. The Senate president also appealed to the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to sheathe their swords and call off the ongoing strike by the university lecturers. This was contained in a speech Senator Mark delivered yesterday on the resumption of the Senate from recess at the National Assembly. However, Mark cautioned that Nigerians should operate strictly within the parameters of the constitution as the issue of the national conference is discussed. According to Mark, the question of dismemberment of the country should not be considered. He said: “A conference of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities, called to foster frank and open discussions of the national question, can certainly find accommodation in the extant provisions of the 1999 Constitution which guarantee freedom of expression, and of association. To that extent, it is welcome. Nonetheless, the idea of a national conference is not without inherent and fundamental difficulties. “Problems of its structure and composition will stretch the letters and spirit of the constitution and severely task the ingenuity of our constitutionalists. Be that as it may, such a conference, if and whenever convened, should have only a few red lines, chief among which would be the dismemberment of the country. Beyond that, every other question should be open to deliberations.” The Senate president also added that clothing such a conference with sovereign powers would be unconstitutional but such conference backed by the weight of the federal government and the National Assembly would carry weight. Meanwhile, the Senate president has said the upper house will do everything possible to nudge the federal government and ASUU to find solutions to the persistent strike actions experienced in tertiary institutions in the country. ASUU has been on strike since July 2 over the federal government’s inability to implement the 2009 agreement it entered with the union. Don’t write me off, Tukur tells younger politicians Alhaji Tukur also yesterday told younger politicians not to write him off, adding that he was not a spent force politically. Tukur, who stated this in his 78th birthday message to the nation, appealed to younger politicians to show deserved respect to their senior compatriots. The party chairman further said peace and cooperation between old and younger politicians was critical to ensuring rapid development in the country. He said: “I have benefited tremendously from the Nigerian society. At my age, I feel obliged at this point to give back to the society the benefit of my experience. Experience, they say, is the best teacher and experience is a commodity of inherently high value. Experience counts. Baraje’s faction’s suit against Tukur stalled The suit filed by the Baraje faction of the PDP seeking to stop Alhaji Tukur and other members of his Executive Council from parading themselves as national officers of the party has suffered a setback following the withdrawal of Justice Ganiyu Safari from the case. Already, the chief judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, has re-assigned the suit to a new judge, Justice Oludotun Adefowope-Okojie. - See more at: leadership.ng/news/180913/battle-pdp-s-soul-shifts-nassreps-brawl-over-baraje-s-visit-nass#sthash.wXrWz43q.dpuf
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 14:08:22 +0000