Chat 212 - News Summary...
- PDP forcefully closed the Abubakar Baraje-led faction over its call for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur.
- The party’s spokesman called on the Baraje-led faction to explain why they are opposed to Tukur’s leadership of the party.
- The party stated that the G7 governors and Baraje lacked “institutional memory.
Chat 212 - Newsmail Report...
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday slammed the Abubakar Baraje-led faction over its call for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur.
The party stated that the G7 governors and Baraje lacked “institutional memory.” It explained that the Alex Ekwueme reconciliation committee set up in 2007 by the leadership of the party gave Tukur and other expelled members an amnesty and waiver to return to the party.
Addressing journalists yesterday in Abuja, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said: “In 2007, we set up the Ekwueme reconciliation committee; the committee gave a blanket amnesty, a blanket waiver for all people, who have left the party or offended the party or the party sacked that they were free to come back and we wiped away every single thing and started on a clean slate as if it had never happened.
“So, what that meant is that even if it is true that the national chairman or some other people have been suspended or expelled by the party, that Ekwueme report gave a blanket amnesty to them and brought them back and restored them to their original position.
“We have looked at the G7 or we have looked at this our aggrieved brothers, minus the governor of Jigawa State, we don’t think of any other person that has institutional memory to remember things that happened in this our party from inception. “There is nobody there that has ever been in the party administration except our former national chairman.”
Metuh said that before Baraje came to the party he was not associated with party administration, adding, “There is no need to exchange banters with people who do not have institutional memory and people who do not have records and people who never participated in any decision making during that period. “The national chairman of the party is a foundation member of this party and he is one of the founding fathers of the party. Now, apart from the Ekwueme’s report, for the national chairman to go on a campaign and win a general election at the convention ground and nothing like this ever came up and nobody brought it up, it becomes completely immaterial of what they are saying at this point.”
The party’s spokesman called on the Baraje-led faction to explain why they are opposed to Tukur’s leadership of the party. “Are they afraid of Bamanga Tukur because he is moving the party forward?
Aretheyafraidof himbecause he is a strong personality? Do they want the PDP to have a weak chairman? Do they want the PDP that would not be supportive of the President as leader of the party? That is what we want to know.
“They should tell us why they are completely opposed to Tukur being the chairman of PDP. We are worried about why they keep on harping on it and the more they shout at Bamanga Tukur, the more we cherish the national chairman that we have; the more we are proud of his achievements, the more we are more receptive to his ideas. The chairman is in charge of the party and we are happy with him,” Metuh said. Meanwhile, the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the seven aggrieved PDP governors to resolve the crisis in the party has been postponed indefinitely until after the conclusion of the Muslim and Christian pilgrimages.
At their last meeting on September 15, they had agreed to continue further discussion on the resolution of the crisis yesterday. At the resumed meeting at the Presidential Villa yesterday, journalists were barred from covering the parley but a communiqué made available to State House correspondents by Governors Liyel Imoke and Babangida Aliyu of Cross River and Niger states respectively, stated that the discussion at the meeting was cordial. The meeting also resolved that in spite of the unfortunate events after the September 15 meeting, the parties remained committed to the resolution of the differences.
The communiqué said the meeting agreed to continue to take steps towards implementing the resolutions agreed to at the previous meetings. However, there was no date fixed for the next meeting. It added that there were apologies from Governors Sule Lamido, Aliyu Wamakko and Murtala Nyako of Jigawa, Sokoto and Adamawa states respectively for their absence at the meeting as they were currently on pilgrimage.
Other governors present at yesterday’s meeting include Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Idris Wada (Kogi), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) and Ibrahim Shema (Katsina). Before yesterday’s meeting, the President and the seven aggrieved governors had held three meetings which failed to reach an amicable settlement of the crisis rocking the PDP.
