Guardian Metuh, others resign Thursday over PDP crisis WEDNESDAY, 19 JUNE 2013 00:00 BY EHICHIOYA EZOMON, TOPE TEMPLER OLAIYA (LAGOS), AZIMAZI MOMOH JIMOH (ABUJA) AND KELVIN EBIRI (PORT HARCOURT) NEWS - NATIONAL • Rivers may begin mass action over govt’s impunity, says Amaechi • Accuses police chief of sabotage • Clark warns against removing Tukur • ‘Why party chair may survive sack threat’ AS the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rages, the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, may soon join the list of casualties. He and others would turn in their resignation letters before the commencement of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting Thursday. Metuh, who confirmed his resignation to reporters in his PDP Secretariat office on Wednesday, said other officials affected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) report would also resign. He stated: “I want to inform you that I am resigning as the National Publicity Secretary with effect from Thursday, June 20, 2013. “This resignation is in the overall interest of the party and is being done to put a final stop to the controversy generated by the INEC report on the mode of my election as National Publicity Secretary. “I have served this party as a member of the National Executive Committee for over 10 years and therefore my interest is to ensure that this party stabilises. I have written and submitted my letter.” Metuh said he took the decision after several meetings and consultations with the various stakeholders in the party, particularly those from the South-East geo-political zone. Asked if he would re-contest the position in a mid-term convention slated for July 15, Metuh said he would take a decision after consultation with his family and leaders of the party in the South-East zone. “I will go back to them and seek their opinion. The decision is for the PDP leaders in my zone to take. I will continue to do my best in whatever capacity I find myself in the near future,” he stated. Besides, former Federal Information Commissioner, Chief Edwin Clark, cautioned on Wednesday that the administration of Goodluck Jonathan could suffer a serious setback should the National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur, be forced to resign on Thursday. In a statement sent to media offices in Abuja, Clark stated that the INEC report on which people based calls for Tukur’s resignation never faulted Tukur’s election. The statement partly read: “There is also the move within the party that they will make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Apart from creating security tension in the country which is failing, they resort now to manipulate the party, this, too shall fail! Alhaji Bamaga Tukur remains authentic, validated, elected Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and no undemocratic manipulation can change or subvert it.” Meanwhile, the embattled chairman of the PDP, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, may survive the onslaught from aggrieved members of the party, particularly some of the governors. This, perhaps, explained the sure-footedness he displayed on Tuesday night when he told reporters categorically that there was no vacancy in the chairmanship of the party, and as such, he would not resign his post. The Guardian learnt that Tukur’s confidence stemmed from the assurances he got when he led his party leaders to meet with Jonathan in Aso Villa. The President reportedly told him that many of the PDP governors were not amenable to his being sacked as demanded by a few of them. Indeed, sources indicated that about 14 PDP governors are ready to give Tukur another chance “so as not to cause a real quake in the party if the chairman and his entire leadership resigned in one fell swoop.” The crack in the governors’ camp over the chairman’s alleged style of leadership is linked to the fallouts from the election into the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF). As revealed by the Governor of Kano and Jigawa states, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, respectively, some of the PDP governors, precisely nine of them, defied the consensus arrangement reached by the party and voted for the Rivers State Governor, Chief Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi instead of Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State for the NGF chair. “So, you can see that the nine governors are the most vocal among the ‘Tukur-must-go’ group,” a source said. “And this is why the PDP governors in the Jang camp have resolved to stand by Tukur, and ward off any attempt to force him to resign,” the source added. Besides, it was learnt that the Presidency had to rethink its endorsement of the recommendation of the Pius Anyim panel that the entire PDP leadership headed by Tukur should resign, for peace to return to the party. The new thinking was reportedly borne out of the realisation that “even if Tukur and co were to go, the PDP governors that voted against Jang at the NGF election might still not back the President in his bid for a second term in office.” “Therefore, rather than sack Tukur to assuage the feelings of the aggrieved governors, the Presidency has decided to forget whatever issues it has with the party leadership and stick with it,” the source said. As it stands, Tukur and a few of the party officials may retain their positions even as the party NEC meeting holds today amid the empaneling of reconciliation committees headed by President Jonathan and the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State. As part of the PDP’s crisis, Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi has said that the people of the state might resort to mass action if what he described as the Federal Government’s impunity and tyranny against the state government persist. Amaechi, who was recently re-elected as the chairman of the NGF, said anyone who recognised Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang as the chairman of the forum was undemocratic. The governor spoke when Rivers State elder statesman and former Petroleum Minister, Prof. Tam David-West, led a delegation on a solidarity visit to him at the Government House, Port Harcourt. Amaechi revealed that he was in the process of writing a letter to President Jonathan to express reservations about the commitment of the state Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, to security in the state. According to him, some highly-placed persons had replaced the former commissioner of police in the state with Joseph who after the state security council meeting, transmitted the issues discussed to those that deployed him in the state. Due to this development, the governor said he had been unable to hold any security council meeting. “Prof., insecurity is threatening to come back, kidnapping is on the rise, armed robbery is on the rise because they have hijacked the security of the state. The commissioner of police reports to them in Abuja directly. He doesn’t report to the governor, he has nothing to do with the government, he takes away security men from commissioners and posts security men to the chairman of Port Harcourt Club. Port Harcourt Club is a social gathering,” he said. The governor revealed that the state government was preparing to protest in Port Harcourt if the anomaly in the state continued. He stated that there were other people who had agreed to join the state government in the mass action from within and outside Nigeria. He, however, said the state wanted to give peace a chance to let the Federal Government know that the people of Rivers were tired of tyranny and impunity. “We want to give peace a chance to let the Federal Government know that we are tired of tyranny and impunity. We want the Federal Government to remember that the reason for which the Federal Government did not support state police is because they say the governors will mismanage state police, then the federal police should not be mismanaged against us because the federal police force is an institution for all Nigerians,” he said. On the issue of the NGF, Amaechi recalled that on Monday, Jang whom he had accused of impersonation, had convened a meeting of some governors. He said that he warned against it and that only 16 governors who voted for Jang attended the meeting. “He has never held a meeting where they are more than 16 governors. We shall very soon call our own meeting because we have been trying hard to talk to them and talk to everybody for them to see reason why we need to be together and respect democracy. Their non-acceptance of the will of the governors is undemocratic. They should not have put themselves forward for election because if you don’t accept results when you don’t win, then you are not democratic. Anybody who recognises my brother Jang (as NGF chairman) is also undemocratic because even that person may not accept any election result that does not favour him. Let the will of the people be expressed and let us respect the sanctity of their decision,” Amaechi said. David-West observed that Amaechi was going through difficult times now and decried his persecution, particularly his suspension from the PDP. The elder statesman, who described the governor as a victim of injustice, said Amaechi had made enemies for fighting for a just cause in the state and urged him not to be distracted. “We are going through very strange times in Nigeria, stranger still that 16 is now greater than 19 (referring to Nigeria Governors’ Forum election outcome). Our governor is going through very difficult times, fortunately, he has the stamina and the strength, the fortitude to bear”, he said. The former minister stated that he had followed the history of all Rivers State governors beginning from the era of Alfred Diette-Spiff to Amaechi, and that no governor had been more committed to elevating Rivers State than Amaechi. He pledged his support for Amaechi and appealed to him to always rely on God for his strength. He also prayed God to give victory to the governor and urged the people of the state to support him and not sit on the fence.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:05:26 +0000
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