Tukur Suspended As 5 PDP Govs Meet With Obasanjo Adesuwa Tsan, and Gbenga Adeboye, Chibuzo Ukaibe, Solomon Ayado — Dec 5, 2014 | Leave a comment The scramble for leverage and political space within the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) appear to have taken a toll on the ruling party, as two former national chairmen, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Senator Barnabas Gemade, have lost out in the power game. Also, former president Olusegun Obasanjo and five PDP governors yesterday held a meeting which came on the heels of last week’s exchange of verbal missiles between Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan. Obasanjo had come under attack from the Presidency following his latest assessment of the government as performing below average. Meanwhile, the national leadership of the PDP yesterday wielded the big stick against Tukur, its immediate-past national chairman, by suspending him for one month over his involvement in a case seeking to remove his successor, Dr. Adamu Mu’azu. Equally, Senator Gemade (PDP, Benue North-East) also yesterday quit the senatorial race on the platform of the ruling party. Gemade’s action may not have come as a surprise to many as his return to the Senate in 2015 has come under a serious challenge from the governor of the state, Gabriel Suswam, one of several governors eyeing the Senate. It is not immediately clear if Gemade is heading on his way to the All Progressives Congress (APC), but this development may have put to rest speculations that Gemade is one of the senators who secured presidential endorsement to return in 2015. At the time of this report, the former PDP national chairman was holding a consultative meeting with his supporters, it was gathered. In the case of Tukur, who was suspended alongside one Aliyu Abuba Gurin, he was referred to the party’s National Disciplinary Committee for infringing on section 58(1)(a)( b)( h)( l) of the PDP Constitution 2012 (as amended). The NWC of the PDP, which rose from its 395th meeting on December 3, 2014, said it was sanctioning its immediate past national chairman following a suit in the Federal High Court filed by Gurin, purportedly acting on behalf of Tukur, seeking to return Tukur as PDP national chairman. An attempt by Tukur, through his legal team, to exonerate himself from the case apparently fell on deaf ears as the party went ahead to suspend him. A statement by the national legal adviser, Barrister Victor Kwon, read: “Among others, the NWC deliberated on the court case instituted against the national chairman of the party, Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu by the former national chairman, Dr Bamanga Tukur. “The NWC reasoned that for instituting a claim and counter-claim in suit FHC/ ABJ /821/2014, Gurin vs PDP & 3 others without first exploring and exhausting the party’s internal mechanism of redress, and for attempting to stop the forthcoming national convention to nominate the party’s presidential candidate as well as regularise the position of the national chairman and other members of the NWC is unacceptable.” However, Tukur’s media aide, Oliver Okpala, yesterday explained that his principal never initiated nor filed any case against Mu’azu contrary to media reports. He said: “The wrongful report and misrepresentation of facts to the effect that Alhaji Bamanga Tukur filed a case urging the court to oust Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu from office as national chairman of the PDP is not only untrue but gross distortion of facts relating to the case instituted and filed by Alhaji Aliyu Gurin. “Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was joined in the suit as a co-defendant and, as is required in law, filed his own counter affidavits stating his own side of the case in relation to the suit filed by the plaintiff, Alhaji Aliyu Buba Gurin.” He argued that a co-defendant in a case cannot be deemed as a plaintiff who filed a suit before a law court. He also said that no time did Tukur react to the court judgement; and neither did he tell any journalist that he had vowed to challenge the judgement at the Court of Appeal. “The important legal argument is, how can a co-defendant who was also sued in a case by the plaintiff vow to challenge the judgement of a case he did not institute on appeal. Gemade May Dump PDP After repeatedly protesting what he described as the lack of transparency in PDP ward congresses in Benue State, Senator Barnabas Gemade, yesterday, opted out of Sunday’s senatorial primary election. LEADERSHIP Friday gathered that Gemade may move to the opposition APC to pursue his ambition of returning to the Senate in 2015. In a letter announcing his withdrawal from the primary election, dated December 2, 2014, and addressed to the PDP national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the senator lamented the absence of transparency and level playing field in the conduct of the party’s primary election. He further lamented the absence of equal opportunities, fairness and democratic process in the party’s affairs, saying that as a founding member of the PDP in 1998 and, indeed, the leader of the conveners in Benue State, he was pained by the “undemocratic developments” in the party. He expressed regret that no honest and law abiding member of PDP had a fair chance in any contest in the forthcoming primary elections as anyone who is capable of manipulating the process, albeit illegally, is free to do so, and will be protected. “I am constrained to write you for the fourth time in two months on the subject matter of the happenings in the PDP in my state as they affect me and our teeming members who have toiled over the years to give victory to our party for four consecutive general elections. He listed his service in the top echelons of the party as member of national steering committee, National Executive Committee (NEC), National Working Committee (NWC), member Board of Trustees (BOT), national chairman and chairman, National Caucus, saying these be considered as important enough for the party to respond positively to his concerns and complaints. My Comments Not To Castigate Jonathan, says Obasanjo Former president Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said his recent comments on the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan was borne out of genuine concern about the situation of the nation and not to run down the president. Obasanjo made the clarification while playing host to five PDP governors at his Hilltop GRA home in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The five governors were Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Sule Lamido (Jigawa). According to the former president, the economic, political as well as general situation in the country demand that all Nigerians should come on board to salvage the situation. “They (the PDP governors) were concerned about what you may call the situation of the nation – security, economy, most of them I have raised in my own public pronouncements in recent times – not to castigate anybody, not to bad-mouth anybody, not to run anybody down but out of genuine concern for the situation of this country and that is the same thing that has brought them. “When we looked at these issues closely, very objectively, we came to the conclusion that, yes, we have a bad situation but not irretrievably bad. Something can still be done and what now is required is the will and the courage to do something when and how it needs to be done. This task is not for one man and it is not even a task for one group, it is a task that requires all hands on deck.” Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, said they had visited Obasanjo to have a discussion with him since he had governed the country between 1999 and 2007.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 10:30:47 +0000
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