Lead •As faction asks court to sack Tukur, others •Atiku indebted to party, says Presidency •Aso Rock meetings continue today Factional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) otherwise known as ‘New PDP’ under the leadership of Abubakar Kawu Baraje said on Monday it is happy with the acceptance it has gained from party members since its “declaration of freedom” from the Bamanga Tukur-led faction on Saturday. A statement by the National Secretary of the faction, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said the parallel party executive was encouraged by the overwhelming support it has been receiving from party members across the country in its “mission to salvage the PDP.” It also condoled with its Adamawa State chapter over the road crash that killed some delegates from the state on Saturday. According to Oyinlola, the resolve of the new leadership to continue with its mission of rescuing the party is unshakeable, just as he applauded party members and leaders from all the states that have continued to reach out to its secretariat in solidarity. “Alhaji Baraje and other leaders of the party appreciate the overwhelming outpouring of support and encouragement from genuine members and leaders of the party across the country. “We assure them that we will not disappoint them in the mission to make the PDP work again in the interest of Nigeria and its people. “We also appreciate the efforts of leaders of the party, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo who, we note, have scheduled a meeting of the party elders for this week. “We respect the elders and will be guided by them even as we stress that we will not abandon the ideals of justice and fairness that gave birth to the new party leadership under Alhaji Baraje. “We equally call on all party members across the country to remain peaceful and law abiding as the PDP rescue process is being pursued with vigour. “We owe the coming generation of Nigerians a duty of ensuring that impunity and dictatorship do not take any root in our democracy and, indeed, in our nation,” the statement said. Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Chibuike Amaechi, also espoused the same sentiment when he spoke on the crisis rocking the PDP, reaffirming that he belongs to the splinter group led by Baraje. Amaechi stated this during an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt shortly after arriving from Abuja on Monday. On the pulling out of some PDP Governors and stakeholders at the controversial mini convention in Abuja, Amaechi said: “I am not the national chairman, the national chairman is Abubakar Kawu Baraje and he is the only person who is qualified to speak for now or the publicity secretary. “All you know is that I belong to the Peoples Democratic Party led by Abubakar Kawu Baraje and we are forging ahead because we need to make some changes.” On PDP’s electoral fortunes in 2015, he said: “Well, when we get to 2015, God will determine that. We can’t be discussing 2015 now. We will discuss 2015 when we get to 2015.” On the decision of Rivers statutory delegates to boycott Saturday’s convention, Amaechi said the chairman of the party and members of the National Assembly and House of Assembly took the decision. “I wasn’t around, so I wouldn’t know what to say about that but the most important thing is that we are on course.” Meanwhile, Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, has said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is indebted to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ought, therefore, not to spearhead factionalisation of the party. Atiku and seven aggrieved Governors left the Eagles Square venue of the 2013 Special National Convention of the party on Saturday to form a parallel executive. The Governors include Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), AbdulFatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers). They had pulled out of the Eagle Square, Abuja, venue of the special convention to hold their parallel meeting at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja. Speaking to State House correspondents in Abuja on Monday, Gulak said Atiku should be grateful to the party for reabsorbing him and giving him waiver to contest the 2011 Presidential primaries. According to him, Atiku was expected to protect the party at all times. “I was surprised because Atiku is supposed to know more than any other person that there is no party like the PDP. He left PDP and went to the Action Congress of Nigeria and he came back to PDP, because he discovered that outside PDP there is no party. “So he had to come back and he was even given the waiver to contest the Presidential primaries in 2011. Atiku should be grateful to PDP. Atiku is indebted to PDP and the best way to continue to pay the debt is to protect PDP,” Gulag added. Gulak dismissed insinuations that PDP would collapse as a result of the current crisis, as he declared that although moles have infiltrated the party, they were being identified and that the on-going series of meeting by the Governors would resolve the problem. He said the party was not interested in chasing its members away, but that if they insist, they should be reminded that there is no better alternative in the current political scenario. “I want to plead with all PDP leaders and members, especially the senior stakeholders, to continue dialouging, you don’t win war at the battle front, you win war on the table. “We want to plead with all members of this political party to keep on discussing because the opposition out there wants the party to split and there are moles. “They sent moles into the cloak of PDP, we have discovered them and Insha Allah, all PDP stakeholders, especially our field commanders who are the Governors, have discovered this and we are talking,” Gulak said. Noting that politics was all about interests, he insisted that Bamanga Tukur could not be easily removed as PDP chairman even if that was the demand of some aggrieved members because internal party democracy must be put to work. “You cannot remove the national chairman like that. He was elected and you will remember that of all the offices, INEC observed that only the positions of the national chairman and the financial secretary were properly done and that is why we had do to the special national convention to properly elect the other officers. “There are processes, there are provisions of the Constitution, there are Electoral Acts, we should not act outside the laws, we must act within the extant laws of the land. Because the PDP is a law abiding party we must entrench internal democracy.” Meanwhile, the crisis meetings begun by President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday are to continue today. The President held two separate meetings with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and 16 PDP Governors a day after a splinter group led by Atiku staged a walk-out at the party’s special national convention. Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Tony Anenih, flanked by Jonathan and one of the ‘rebel’ Governors, Rabiu Kwankwaso, read a communique on the outcome of the parley. “This evening (Sunday evening) Mr. President, the leadership of the party and the PDP Governors to discuss the incident that occurred during the PDP special convention on August 31, 2013, whereby some state delegations walked out of the convention ground to announce a faction of the party. “The meeting was smooth and encouraging and the discussions will continue on Tuesday with all the aggrieved Governors in attendance,” Anenih said. Also on Monday, re-elected National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, reaffirmed that “consultation is going on at the highest level of the party; the consultation is involving the President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who is also the National Leader of the party, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) state Governors and other party leaders. “The consultation will resume tomorrow (today) in full force and whatever the outcome is, will be made public immediately, there is no cause for alarm, the situation is under control.” On whether the leadership of the party was contemplating sanctioning rebel state Governors and other party members involved in the formation of the parallel PDP, Metuh said: “We have not got to that level, like I said earlier, consultation is going on at the highest level of the party over the matter, we will surely get over it very soon.” Speaking on the contentious issue of the National Secretary of the party, Metuh said until the court order which restrained the party from conducting election in to the office is finally disposed of, Charles Aderemi Akitoye remains the occupier of the office. Also, Kwara State Governor, AbdulFatah Ahmed, expressed hope that further consultations would address the issues involved in the crisis. Ahmed, who spoke to newsmen on his return to the state at the Ilorin International Airport on Monday, disclosed that another meeting is being arranged where issues they had highlighted may be thrashed out. “As you are aware consultation has started with the Presidency, it is on-going and another round of consultation is being arranged where we hope the issues that have been highlighted will be thrashed out. “Don’t forget that we had to go to the Presidency as a mark of respect for the President to deliberate on issues that we had highlighted. “We want to let you know that things are still on-going and hopefully we will get you informed as soon as final outcome is made available,” the Governor added. However, Senate Minority Leader, George Akume, enthused that “the lamentations of Nigerians are responsible for the gradual disintegration of the PDP.” He noted that the woes that have befallen the party in recent times were caused by abandonment of the principles on which it was built. Meanwhile, Osun State chapter of the PDP has dissociated itself from the parallel executive of the party which appointed Oyinlola as its National Secretary. The party’s state leadership, rising from an emergency meeting in Osogbo on Monday, insisted that Oyinlola was on his own as far as the ‘New PDP’ was concerned. The meeting was attended by Oyinlola’s former deputy, now Minister of State for Defence, Olusola Obada; former Deputy National Chairman of PDP (South), Shuaibu Oyedokun; Chairman FERMA, Jide Adeniji, Olu Alabi; a former Senator, Iyiola Omisore; Abiola Ogundokun; and Francis Fadahunsi among others. Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, also spoke on the crisis rocking the PDP, reaffirming that he belongs to the splinter group led by Baraje. Amaechi stated this during an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt shortly after arriving from Abuja on Monday. On the pulling out of some PDP Governors and stakeholders at the controversial mini convention in Abuja, Amaechi said: “I am not the national chairman, the national chairman is Abubakar Kawu Baraje and he is the only person who is qualified to speak for now or the publicity secretary. “All you know is that I belong to the Peoples Democratic Party led by Abubakar Kawu Baraje and we are forging ahead because we need to make some changes.” On PDP’s electoral fortunes in 2015, he said: “Well, when we get to 2015 God will determine that. We can’t be discussing 2015 now. We will discuss 2015 when we get to 2015.” On the decision of Rivers statutory delegates to boycott Saturday’s mini PDP convention, Amaechi said the chairman of the party and members of the National Assembly and House of Assembly took the decision. “I wasn’t around, so I wouldn’t know what to say about that but the most important thing is that we are on course.” Amaechi also said he would not know the outcome of the meeting President Goodluck Jonathan had with some Governors in Abuja since he was not at the meeting By Chesa Chesa, Rotimi Akinwumi (Abuja), Dele Moses (Ilorin), Tor Vande-Acka (Makurdi) and Gbenga Faturoti (Osogbo)
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 05:24:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015