By Sylvester Enoghase (Lagos), Rotimi Akinwumi and Chesa Chesa (Abuja) •APC accuses President of promoting impunity in Rivers •President hosts another trouble-shooting meeting with Govs The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has pleaded with party members who might have grievances against President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration or party leaders to stop heaping abuses on the President. The leadership especially urged all aggrieved members who have factionalised the party to embrace dialogue by fully utilising the window of reconciliation offered them and avoid playing into the hands of those who do not wish the nation or its democracy well. PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, made the plea in a statement in Abuja on Sunday. He said “the on-going skirmishes and well-organised theatrics aimed at portraying the President in bad light were not necessary because as members of one big family, no challenge was insurmountable.” Calling for truce, the publicity scribe added that the nation would benefit the more should detractors of the President take him or the party up on issues of development “to enrich our practice of democracy.” The party regretted that the problem within its fold was a challenge which could be resolved within the ambit of its crisis resolution mechanism but which “was being exaggerated by some politicians desperately looking for quick photo-ups through sensationalism in the media.” “This tactics is antithetical to democracy but not an unfamiliar rule of engagement. “However, it is important that we avoid over-stretching it so as not to play into the waiting hands of the desperate, wishing to incite the people and destroy our common destiny. “We wish to assure our members therefore that we are still capable of resolving our challenges and urge them to be more committed to our progress. We shall emerge stronger. “Very unfortunately, the easiest way to gain prominence today is to attack the President and the leadership of his party, not on issues of governance or on alternative direction of governance but on the pedestrian that borders on sheer mudslinging. “While the inconsequential makes the banner, the essentials and the substantial in the consistent though quiet transformation of the nation are tucked away in obscure riders. “The media is a critical building block of democracy and the Nigerian media has stood firm across the decades. It must not relent. “In all these, our firm support for the President as the leader and symbol of our party in government remains total. “We shall neither waiver nor allow narrow sentiments stand in the way of the absolute resolve of our great party to better the lots of all Nigerians,” the statement reads. But regardless of PDP’s pleading, All Progressives Congress (APC) has blamed the President for last week’s blockade of the Rivers State Government House, saying “his unbridled disposition toward cheap political vendetta has pushed him to commit impunity and unconstitutionality perhaps more than any other President in the country’s history.” The police had on Thursday night prevented Amaechi from entering the Government House through the usual route to his residence. In a statement in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, APC believes that the police could not have had the temerity to act the way they did in blocking Amaechi and his guests if they were not assured of support from higher authorities. It warned that “giving Presidential backing to the police – or any national institution at all – to commit impunity and violate the nation’s Constitution is the fastest means to destroy such institutions and erode public confidence in them.” ‘’In the case of the police, what is happening in Rivers is sending a wrong signal to the polity concerning the role of the force in 2015. “How can a malleable police be trusted to be neutral and to help ensure the conduct of a free and fair election – with the President as a candidate – in 2015?’’ APC queried. The party said the Nigeria Police Force under Jonathan has increasingly become a lawless police force whose allegiance is only to the President and not to the Constitution. APc alleged that the police force has become a tool in the hands of the President to harass, intimidate, arrest and persecute all his real and perceived political enemies. ‘’Since the onset of the President Jonathan-inspired political logjam in Rivers State and the implosion of his party, the PDP, the President has been depending on the Nigeria Police to shore up his dwindling political fortune. “The insubordination of the Rivers State Super Police Commissioner Mbu; the police-sponsored fracas in the Rivers State House of Assembly; the assault on the five visiting Governors by thugs working under the direction and protection of the state commissioner of police and the unlawful occupation of the new PDP secretariats at Abuja and Lagos are clear examples. ‘’President Jonathan however should be told in clear and unambiguous language that Nigerians will resist all machinations by him to turn Nigeria into a police state,’’ the party said. APC also said those who have been struggling to distance the President from the crisis in Rivers are being clever by half “since it is clear to all Nigerians that the President is the puppeteer in the crisis from day one, hence it has festered despite all efforts to end it.” ‘’As far as the crisis in Rivers is concerned, the buck stops on the President’s desk. Here is a President who decided, unwisely, to make the election of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum a referendum on his administration’s credibility. “Even after he lost woefully, he has failed to learn his lessons, as he has continued in his hot pursuit of a fellow-elected political leader. ‘’Today, no thanks partly to his political vendetta in Rivers and elsewhere, the President’s political empire has collapsed completely and no amount of police repression, subversion of the constitution or reign of impunity can salvage it. ‘’President Jonathan has proven himself to be incapable of managing success. “A President who presumably won a pan-Nigerian mandate, whose party controls 23 out of 36 states and has an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly has, in a period of less than 30 months, frittered all away and is today left with less than 16 state Governors and lost control of the National Assembly,” APC noted. Rivers State Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Chika Onuegbu, also on Sunday condemned what he described as “the unlawful blockade of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and denying him access to the Government House, Port Harcourt,” by the police. Onuegbu in a statement said the action must be viewed as an embarrassment to the government and good people of Rivers State. “We call on the Inspector General of Police for a full scale investigation into the unlawful blockage, and an apology,” he added. Meanwhile, at press time last night Aso Rock was still hosting yet another round of tension-soaked parley, as the President met with Governors of the PDP in an effort to resolve the crisis tearing apart the party. Some of the aggrieved Governors as well as their colleagues still loyal to the Bamanga Tukur led-PDP had arrived the First Lady’s Conference Room at the Villa, venue of the meeting. Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Rotimi Amaechi, drove himself into the Villa, closely followed by his Niger State counterpart, Babangida Aliyu. Other Governors who were at the meeting are Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers, Idris Wada of Kogi, Abdufattah Ahmed of Kwara, Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, and Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 10:18:13 +0000
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