PDP ALERT..!! ======= Mu’azu, Oyinlola Meet, Discuss Former Governor’s• In line with his efforts at reconciliation within the party, the new National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, has met with the suspended National Secretary of the party, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, on how to resolve the drift in PDP. Also yesterday, Mu’azu said the party would outsmart the opposition political parties at poaching its members. He spoke when the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, advised PDP to concentrate efforts on how to retain the states held by governors who had defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mu’azu had on Sunday met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Otta, Ogun State, as part of efforts to lobby him and bring about effective reconciliation within PDP, especially in the South-west zone. Oyinlola, who was removed from office as the national secretary in the aftermath of a Federal High Court order by Justice Abdu Kafarati, had the order quashed by the Court of Appeal. But the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party ambushed the reinstatement order and refused to reinstate Oyinlola as the national secretary and consequently suspended him. The matter is currently in the Supreme Court awaiting hearing. But in a bid to drive through its peace initiative, the NWC has decided to withdraw Chief Joe Gadzama as the lawyer to the party, since the party has a National Legal Adviser in the person of Mr. Victor Kwom. The NWC believes that Gadzama was the personal lawyer to the former chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. A source said with Gadzama’s removal as PDP’s lawyer, the national legal adviser would be expected to withdraw its case at the Supreme Court to enable the party resolve the Oyinlola saga out of court. PUNCH gathered that with the withdrawal of representation, the road would be cleared for Oyinlola’s reinstatement as the national secretary of the party. This was one of the issues discussed between Mu’azu and Oyinlola during their meeting on Sunday in Abuja. Speaking yesterday when Akpabio came to pay him a solidarity visit, Mu’azu said: “We will soon show to the opposition that though they are master poachers, they are teaching us how to poach and we will beat them at it, because when two members of your family fight, you should settle them and not for you to come and pit them against each other. However, if that is their game we will learn.” The PDP national chairman added that the party was planning a conference where the manifesto of the party would be reviewed to make it people-oriented, with the welfare of the people as its primary focus. According to Mu’azu, “The world is dynamic, so is our manifesto and we will ensure that in each ward, local government and state, by our development, a foreigner would know we are PDP. As you drive along in this country, immediately you enter a PDP state, the difference will be clear. “I will soon call for a conference that will involve all stakeholders for the party to address Nigerians on what the party stands for.” In his remarks, Akpabio urged PDP to concentrate efforts on how to retain the states of governors that had defected to the APC, saying: “Most of us are outgoing governors, so whether they come back or not, next year we must leave and in our places others must take over. “So I think we should concentrate more on those ones who will take over from those governors and ensure that those states remain PDP.” Akpabio who told the chairman to discountenance those he described as metropolitan or Abuja politicians, added, “Whatever you do, elections are won in local governments and not in Abuja. So if there is any politician here who feels he can win an election in Abuja he should know Akwa Ibom is different from Abuja.” The governor, who restated his commitment and loyalty to PDP, said: “I am here very loyal to the leader of the party at the national level. Mr. President and you can all attest to that and I don’t make pretenses about it. “So I will expect the same loyalty to be extended to me at the state level. Whoever wants to stay in Abuja and jump through the office of the NWC to take power in Akwa Ibom, I say Tufiakwa, it is impossible.” Meanwhile, the former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, has said his defection from APC to PDP was not borne out of the quest for position but as a result of the injustice meted out to him and his supporters by the APC national leadership. Bafarawa made the remark yesterday while receiving PDP leaders and supporters from Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, who paid him a solidarity visit at his residence in Sokoto. He maintained that his resolve to join PDP was not because of any political position or favour but as the last option to ensure justice and fairness to his supporters. According to him, his defection to the PDP was the only solution following the injustice meted out to him and his supporters by the leadership of APC after suffering along with others to build APC in the state. “I am not seeking any political position, it is not what encouraged me and my supporters to decide on our political survival by leaving APC to PDP. “It is true, we are politically conscious and believe in justice and fairness, anything short of it, will not be accepted. “So I have no grudge against any particular individual or group, my political destiny comes from God, only God can decide my future and I trust His judgment for our political destiny and direction,” Bafarawa said. He urged his supporters who followed him to the PDP, to respect those they meet in the party and work together with unity of purpose for the attainment of the set targets. In order to present themselves to the leadership of the PDP, Bafarawa, along with his supporters, are expected to visit Muazu at the PDP secretariat in Wadata Plaza, Abuja, today.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 09:04:04 +0000
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