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Chat 212 - Nig - Newsmail Report...
Chat 212 - Nig - Newsmail Report...
ABUJA— The end seems not in sight to the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the aggrieved seven governors operating on the platform of the new PDP (nPDP) are insisting that President Goodluck Jonathan must meet their demands presented at previous meetings they held with him (president).
One of the governors, Dr Aliyu Babangida of NigerState, however, blamed external forces for fueling the crisis between the presidency and the G7 governors and warned party members to be wary of those who are desperate to pull down the party.
Speaking for the seven governors, the deputy National Chairman of the Party, North West, Ambassador Ibrahim Musa Kazaure disclosed that up till now, there was no indication that the Tukur-led PDP was prepared to accept the terms of reconciliation the governors had listed.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido had earlier vowed that the G7 governors would continue to fight on and would never back down, inisting that their cause is just and pro-masses.
Lamido told a crowd in Sokoto where he went to commission projects, that the G7 had saddled themselves with the task of rescuing the Nigerian democracy and the need to re-organise the PDP to make the party comply with the yearnings and aspiration of ordinary members.
Lamido, who noted that the governors have only been fighting on the side of the masses of Nigeria whom he said have had a raw deal, stressed that the struggle by the G7 was also to ensure that no one, either at the federal or state levels would be able to stand in the way of the down trodden, adding that the struggle was to ensure the return of Nigeria to the path of the truth, justice, equity, fair play and stability of Nigeria.
He said: “The media had referred to us as rebels. But we are not rebels at all. We are the true democrats. We are the custodians of democracy in the land. We are not for any ethnic or religious bias but fighting to make sure democracy in the nation does not die. We are fighting against the enemies of democracy and we don’t plan to give up on that struggle because what we are fighting for has not been actualized.
“I want to assure you that the group has come to stay until justice is restored in our party. I can see the banners of seven of us everywhere here in Sokoto. So we have come to stay.”
It is not yet over — Kazaure
Speaking further, Kazaure said: “Anybody who tells you the differences have been settled is not saying the truth. If you call it war, I then will tell you that the war is still on because the offending group that decided to run the party against the constitution has not relented in its bid to remain lawless.
“We can only reconcile when the leadership of PDP accept that our party operates within its laws. We formed the party when most of them were not there and we won’t allow them hijack it and ruin our efforts.”
Kazaure who noted that his group had insisted that the law won’t be followed, said that the Tukur-led PDP sack and suspend leaders and members arbitrarily, adding, “They manage the party without recourse to the rules and constitution and we said no to that. That is the cause of the problem. So we have to insist that things be done lawfully and orderly.”
How G7 Govs were misled — Senator
However, a stakeholder of the PDP in Adamawa, Senator Grace Folashade Bent who dismissed claims by the G7 governors, said that they were rather undemocratic by allowing the issue of only one of them, Admiral Murtala Nyako to rule their conduct, adding that the PDP stakeholders in Adamawa could not understand the basis they allowed Nyako to lure them into a fight against the President of Nigeria and the Party which she said gave them the tickets to be governors.
According to her, the G7 had portrayed itself as undemocratic by failing to investigate what she termed the root of Nyako’s grievances with the PDP National Chairman, while they equally failed to give the PDP members in Adamawa fair hearing on the crises in the state which she stressed had snow balled into the current crisis within the PDP.
Bent blamed the governor of RiversState, Rotimi Amaechi for the escalation of the crises in PDP, stating that as the Chairman of the Governors Forum, he had always been biased in his assessment of the issues within the party in respect of the interest of the governor of Adamawa state rather than being fair minded.
Both President Jonathan and the G7 Governors are expected to hold the second round of their reconciliation meeting on October 7, following which the two sides would decide whether or not to stay together under one umbrella.
Blame external forces for PDP crsis— Aliyu
Meanwhile, Niger state governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu yesterday blamed external forces for fueling the crisis between the presidency and the G7 governors and warned party members to be wary of those who are desperate to pull down the party.
Speaking when the commander of Nigeria Army Corps Artillery, Kontagora Major General Hussaini Salihu paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Minna yesterday, the governor said, “there is a signal that some external forces are fully behind the crisis in the PDP especially as it concerns the deadlocked reconciliation moves.
“What is happening in PDP is an internal affair but I am beginning to see a sign that some people don’t want the reconciliation to be successful because the type of articles you see in the newspapersare like some people are out there trying to ensure that there is no reconciliation,” he observed.
He described the disagreement in the PDP as a“Struggle for democracy and morality” which according to him is “keeping the promised made either in secret or public”.
Dr Aliyu said, “the struggle we are witnessing is that of Democracy and morality. Morality meaning that if you make an agreement whether in private or public, we must learn to keep such promise which include promise that if you do this I will do that. We must therefore not allow those people outside the party to get enmeshed in the problem that is not their own and in the process they are really pulling down what we are trying to build”.
Dr. Aliyu who also spoke on internal security insisted that rather than scrap the National Youth Service Scheme, it should be extended to one and a half years of which the first six months should be for military training for all participants.
According to him, “any disciplined person will create a disciplined environment and a disciplined environment will give you a disciplined people and disciplined nation and that is what we need in our country.”
The Artillery commander, Gen. Salihu said he was in Minna to inspect Army formations within the state and to assess the security challenges facing the country for now and how to tackle them for peace to reign in the entire country.
