President Goodluck Jonathan may have directed the National
Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, and
other members of the PDP National Working Committee to resign.
It was learnt on Monday that Jonathan gave the directive after
the presidential committee on the PDP crises headed by the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Anyim, submitted its
report to him in Abuja .
The order and submission of the report which noted that the party was
drifting coincided with the lifting of the suspension of Sokoto State
Governor, Aliyu Wamakko, by the 12-member Tukur-led NWC.
A member of the presidential committee, who spoke to one of our
correspondents on condition of anonymity, added that Tukur and the
other NWC members would tender their resignation letters at the
party’s National Executive Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday in
Abuja.
He said apart from the PDP internal crises, the President was
concerned about the position of the Independent National Electoral
Commission on the manner majority of the NWC members came to office.
INEC had queried the affirmation method that returned most of the NWC members to office.
It was also gathered that the NWC members were told that they risked being sacked if they failed to quit before Thursday.
A PDP source said, “If they fail to resign before Thursday, they
will be sacked.” He added that the Presidency had already directed that
a caretaker committee be set up in place of the NWC.
When contacted, a member of the NWC, who wondered how Jonathan’s directive was leaked, merely said it was true.
“How did the story leak? Yes, it is true. I am already packing my things from my office, “ he said.
But another NWC member, who also admitted that they would cease to
hold office before Friday, said, “We are not resigning because
President Jonathan asked us to do so. If we resign, it will be because
of the report by INEC. We will be resigning to protect the integrity of
INEC.”
A national leader of the PDP confirmed the looming dissolution of
the NWC, saying, “You remember INEC had said that it does not
recognise the election of a majority of them (NWC members).
“The fear is that one of those on the NWC could go to court and aver
that the election that produced him or her was illegal. Anybody could
go to court on that score too. The party may have problem at that
point.”
A member of the presidential committee which has governors Emmanuel
Uduaghan (Delta); Goodwill Akpabio, (Akwa Ibom); Theodore Orji (Abia );
Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); and Gabriel Suswam
(Benue), as some of its members, had said the panel was not pleased
with happenings in the PDP.
He said, “Our report, which might not please the President and
the leadership of the party, is that the party is drifting. We have told
him not to allow the party disintegrate further because whether we like
it or not, the party is drifting dangerously and we have to arrest
that.
“We have put in the report that some actions of the National Working Committee are repressive and unnecessary.
“We wondered why the party refused to hold its NEC for about a year,
which to us amounts to breaching of the party’s constitution.”
The party’s constitution stipulates that NEC must hold at least once in a quarter.
The panel, which also has the Chief of Staff to the President, Mike
Ogiadhome; and the Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak, as
members therefore recommended the immediate holding of the NEC meeting,
which has not taken place since July 2012.
The Board of Trustees of the party is expected to meet in Abuja on Wednesday.
Our correspondents gathered on Monday that pressure from PDP
governors made Tukur and his team to lift the suspension on
Wamakko at a press conference jointly addressed by himself, Akpabio and
four other governors–Uduaghan, Orji, Yuguda and Shema. Anyim and
Gulak were also present at the briefing.
Investigations by our correspondents showed that the governors had
indicated their readiness to fight Tukur because Wamakko’s suspension
was based on a “trivial” issue.
The NWC of the PDP had while announcing the suspension of Wamakko,
said it took the decision because of alleged insubordination to Tukur
and his office.
The NWC had earlier suspended the Governor of Rivers State and
Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for refusing
to reinstate a suspended Local Government chairman and councillors in
the state.
But the PDP governors whose chairman is Akpabio, were said to have
expressed anger over the gale of suspensions in the party, particularly
that of Wamakko.
Wamakko, while describing his suspension as null and void, had called for the sack of Tukur and Gulak.
He had accused Tukur of running the party as his personal estate.
The governors’ anger was said to have made Jonathan to set up the Anyim-led committee to look at the crises in the party.
While announcing the lifting of the suspension on Wamakko, Tukur
said, “Now this issue will never come again. It is a great party, we
believe in our nation. We need a party as a platform to stand on, but
based on unity, discipline and commitment.
“We are also going to have NEC meeting. We have the support to
rescind the suspension, which is a very important thing. We rescind the
suspension of our governor of Sokoto.
“With that, we are ready for further business because NEC meeting is
the requirement of our own party, always to get in touch with the
people to tell them of our programmes, like the state- of -the nation
and state of the party.
“So we are going to have our NEC meeting on Thursday, June 20 by 12pm.
“NWC has rescinded the suspension of the Sokoto state governor on the
appeal of the PDP Governors’ Forum and secondly the National Chairman
is inviting the PDP statutory members to the meeting of NEC.”
Also speaking at the briefing , Akpabio said that the presidential
committee appealed to the NWC to lift the suspension of Wamakko.
Akpabio added, “I want to thank the national chairman of our party
and other members of the working committee for granting us the privilege
of this meeting today (Monday).
“We came as a select committee of the PDP to discuss the state of
affairs of our great party, particularly the relationship between the
working committee and the PDP governors and I want to say that we make a
very strong appeal to the working committee on behalf of our colleague,
Governor Wamakko.”
On why Amaechi’s suspension was not lifted, Akpabio said it was
because of a case he (Amaechi) instituted against the party.
[ThePunch]
