Four
of the seven aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governors on Tuesday
met with President Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja to protest ‘the
belligerence’ of the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur.
Before the meeting, Jonathan had held
two separate closed doors meetings with two elders of the PDP and three
governors sympathetic to the Tukur-led faction over the crisis
rocking the party.
The elders were Dr. Ahmadu Ali, a former chairman of the PDP; and Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, an ex-military President.
The three governors that met with him
earlier on Tuesday were Godswill Akpabio(Akwa Ibom), Gabriel Suswan
(Benue); and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta).
The PUNCH also gathered that
the the four ‘rebel’ governors – Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Babangida
Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) –
reiterated their demand for the recognition of their Rivers State
counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’
Forum.
They were also said to have asked the
President to ask Tukur to halt plans to take over the party’s structure
in their various states.
These, among other things, were parts of
demands tabled before the President at a closed-door meeting held at
the First Lady’s wing of the Presidential Villa.
It was also gathered that those at the
meeting commended elders of the party for their various efforts at
resolving the crisis that led to the factionalisation of the ruling
party. They equally commended the President for his disposition towards
the various peace moves.
Three of the aggrieved governors who
were absent from the meeting were Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu
Kwankwaso (Kano); and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara).
It was gathered that Kwankwaso and Ahmed travelled out of the country.
A-yet-to-be verified information claimed
that the governors equally asked the President to replace
Vice-President Namadi Sambo with one of them as a pre-condition for
their support should he decide to seek a second term in 2015.
A source privy to the meeting said, “The
aggrieved governors are ready for peace; that is why they attended
the meeting in the first place. However, it is doubtful if any progress
can be made if unconstitutional actions taken by the Tukur-led National
Working Committee of the party are not reversed.”
Jonathan had earlier on Tuesday met
first with Suswan, Akpabio and Uduaghan as well as Babangida and Ali
over the crisis in the party.
Suswan avoided State House
correspondents outright while Akpabio and Uduaghan who were approached
declined comments on their way out of the Villa.
Ali and Babangida, who are among the
seven PDP elders brokering peace between the Tukur-led PDP and the
Abubakar Baraje group known as the New PDP, arrived at the Villa around 1pm and left after about an hour.
Since the PDP split on August 31, 2013,
Jonathan has met with several stakeholders in the party, including
former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also one of the seven elders
of the party.
He has also met with Aliyu , Kwankwaso, Nyako and Ahmed, who are backing the New PDP.
Meanwhile, the New PDP has said
its leaders refused to be part of the post convention dinner held at the
Presidential Villa on Monday because they considered it as a waste of
resources.
It said there was no need for the dinner because there were other serious national issues that needed urgent attention.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, the New PDP
said national issues like the ongoing strike by the university
teachers ought to attract urgent attention of President Jonathan.
It said, “To us, that dinner was organised to give credibility to the charade that was called PDP Special National Convention.
“As a serious group, we cannot be a
party to such squandermania while Nigerian masses are wallowing in
abject poverty and our children kept at home instead of being in school
because the Federal Government could not meet the lecturers’ demands.
“We wish to have nothing to do with
such, which we considered as wasting of public funds and such
trivialities associated with Tukur and his leadership – which explains
why he must be kicked out of the national secretariat of the party.
“We cannot be a party to such a
gathering while the PDP family is facinga serious crisis that if not
checked would dim the party’s chances of winning future elections. This
is a sign of a man chasing a rat while his house is on fire.”
It also also urged Tukur and his
team to stop making statements capable of derailing the efforts of
the elders committee of the party under the leadership of Obasanjo to
restore normalcy and unity amongst PDP members.
But the National Publicity Secretary of
the Tukur-led PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said, “We will not exchange words
with our aggrieved brothers; reconciliation is ongoing and our focus
is to redouble the efforts to ensure that our members rededicate
themselves to the party and for our elected and appointed
representatives to work harder now more than ever in satisfying the
yearnings of Nigerians.”
Also on Tuesday, the Tukur-led faction
initiated a fresh contempt suit before the Lagos State High Court,
Ikeja, against leaders of the Baraje-led group for allegedly
violating an order of the court.
The suit is different from the one
the Tukur group filed before a Federal High Court, Abuja, against the
same set of defendants, including Baraje and the National Secretary
of the New PDP, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
The fresh suit listed the alleged
contemnors as a former National Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam
Jaja; Maode Hiliya, Timi Frank, Mrs. Binta Koje, Mallam Nasir Issa, Eze,
Aliyu Wadada and Mallam Tanko Gomna.
The PUNCH
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Up PDP! Long live Nigeria!
ReplyDeletelol...
ReplyDelete