The decision to suspend the action of
the committee, which had earlier fixed the national convention for
August 31, was taken at an emergency meeting of the National Working
Committee of the PDP in Abuja.
A statement by the Acting National
Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Tony Okeke, said the NWC took the
decision to avert a constitutional crisis.
Okeke also said the South-West congress scheduled for August 24, would also not hold.
Gana, in company with the Secretary of
the committee and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, had said
on Friday that the two dates(August 24 and 31) were sacrosanct.
But Okeke, in his statement, said some of the committee’s actions were in breach of the PDP constitution.
The statement reads in part, “The NWC,
at its meeting on Monday, July 1, 2013 thoroughly considered issues
surrounding recent developments in the party and resolved as follows:
“In view of the anomalies and breaches
of the constitution of the PDP observed in the actions so far taken by
the Special National Convention Planning Committee, the NWC has directed
the committee to put on hold all activities relating to the Special
South-West Zonal Congresses and the Special National Convention pending
the regularisation of the anomalies and breaches so as to forestall a
repeat of the events that affected the party’s convention in 2012.
“Consequently, the dates recently announced by the planning committee are in the circumstances untenable.”
Tukur has not hidden his disapproval of the activities of the committee since its inception.
For example, he refused to receive Gana
and Ekweremadu when they attempted to see him (Tukur) in his house on
Wednesday because of the way the committee was handling its assignment.
Our correspondent gathered that Tukur
did not want majority of the former members of the NWC of the party,
who resigned recently, to return.
Gana and Ekweremadu were said to have
begun moves to return the formal NWC to the PDP using the convention of
the party where new members of the NWC are to be elected.
Twenty officers of the party, some of
whom were members of the NWC, resigned from their offices during the
meeting of the National Executive Committee of the party on June 26 in
Abuja.
Their resignation was as a result of a
report by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which faulted
the way the affected officers emerged at the May 24, 2012 national
convention.
Tukur was said to have been happy with
the resignation and had made up his mind that none of the affected
officers would return as NWC members.
Apart from querying their loyalty,
Tukur was said to have confided in his close associates that the former
NWC members betrayed him because they did not share his vision in the
running of the party.
For example, he was said to have
expressed anger at the way all the NWC members, including the former
National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, met and reversed a
decision they jointly took on the state executive committee of the party
in Adamawa State.
A close aide of Tukur said he was angry
that some of the NWC members had penetrated the convention committee,
thereby making it impossible for him (Tukur) to have his way in his
determination to block their return.
The aide said, “The chairman wants a new
NWC, because he has this notion that the last NWC members were not
loyal to him and President Goodluck Jonathan.
“He, therefore, wants the committee to
rezone the offices, which will make it impossible for the former
occupiers of the offices to return. But rather than work in tandem with
this arrangement, Ekweremadu and Gana went to the media, saying the
former zoning formula would remain. That is the bone of contention.”
On Friday, Ekweremadu said that the
zoning formula used during the “March 24, 2012 convention subsists,” but
added that it would only be changed if it became absolutely necessary.
Apart from taking a decision on the
convention, Okeke said the NWC at its meeting on Monday, also discussed
the crisis rocking the party in Anambra State.
He said the PDP “has resolved to
invite major stakeholders in the state to an enlarged stakeholders’
meeting on July 18 to commence consultations towards finding a lasting
solution to the problems of the party in the state which will lead the
party to a successful governorship primary election.”
Our correspondent gathered that the
stakeholders, who are to be led by a former Vice-President, Dr. Alex
Ekweme, would also meet with Jonathan a day before the meeting with the
NWC members.
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