The meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan’s camp and the breakaway governors of the ‘new’ Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will still hold on Monday, despite reports of the breakaway faction seeking a postponement due to the lesser Hajj.
Despite National Chairman of the new PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje and his camp issuing a press statement seeking postponement of the meeting for the Muslim pilgrimage, the Presidency confirmed on Sunday night that the meeting, scheduled to hold at the First Lady’s Conference room at the Presidential Villa on Monday, will nevertheless go on.
According to Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, the Presidency was not officially notified of the decision of the aggrieved governors not to attend the meeting.
Gulak also said the Presidency would not act on speculations published on the pages of newspapers, so the plan is still to receive the governors on Monday.
“The meeting is supposed to hold tomorrow. Let’s wait for tomorrow before you begin to ask questions,” Gulak said, but refrained from answering further questions, saying “The best thing is to wait for tomorrow whether the meeting will hold or not so that if the meeting doesn’t hold, you can call me to know why; and if we have any reason to give, we can then give you.”
nPDP Demands Tukur’s Resignation, Wants Baraje Installed as Party Chairman
The breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday demanded the immediate resignation of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as Chairman of the party because he is not a registered and card-carrying member of the party and therefore has no business being its National Chairman.
According to the Baraje-led faction, Tukur was expelled from the PDP in 2006 with nine others, following disciplinary action for anti-party activities. The faction observed that since then, Tukur has not officially returned to the party, while records show that he has not followed due process for his readmission into the party.
He neither apply for, nor obtained the requisite waiver by the National Executive Committee of the party before offering himself for election into the office of National Chairman in 2012. This makes his membership incurably defective and his emergence as PDP’s National Chairman null and void and of no effect whatsoever, since he is the product of a flawed process,” the faction stated in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze Chukwuemeka.
“Consequently, all the actions he has taken as Chairman of PDP since his purported election in March 2012, including the illegal, contentious convention of August 2013 are null and void and of no effect.
“Reliable information reaching us from the PDP National Secretariat indicates that Alhaji Tukur is desperately seeking a way out of his predicament and has set about falsifying party records with regard to revalidating his membership through the back door. We wish to put him on notice that this is criminal and we hope he understands the consequences of his actions.”
The faction therefore concluded that Tukur’s continued occupation of the Office of PDP National Chairman is clearly fraudulent, illegal and unconstitutional.
“We hereby urge Alhaji Tukur to tow the path of honour and throw in the towel. This is the best option open to him. However, since one man cannot hold the party and the entire nation hostage, should he fail to heed our advice, we would have no other option than to appeal to both the Presidency and the PDP leadership to ease him of the party in the most diplomatic way to avoid hurting him so much considering his age, zeal and commitment to serve the party by offering a ministerial post to him,” the statement continued.
“This is a good opportunity for the Presidency to demonstrate if it is serious about restoring peace and unity to the party.
“We hereby formally suggest the immediate recall of Alhaji Abubakar Kawu, who erroneously handed over to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as National Chairman of PDP, thinking he was a member of the party. This will enable Alhaji Kawu to organise a proper, unified convention that will usher in a duly elected National Working Committee of the party as early as possible to enable us face the business of positioning PDP as the ruling party come 2015. It will also pave the way to restore PDP’s past glory based on the visions of the founding fathers of the party.”
