• Fear of imminent midterm convention grips party
All is not well within the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party as the crisis which had engulfed the party since the inception of the present leadership of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur over a year ago is gradually gravitating to a parlous state. Eighteen members of the party's National Working Committee (NWC) have threatened to tear the party apart should they be sacked from the leadership of the ruling party.
A member of the NWC who spoke to Sunday Mirror recently said that evidence was overwhelming on the culpability of the National Chairman in the attempt to sack the 18 members of the NWC. The NWC member also said the fear within the party was that the National Chairman was pushing for a midterm convention where the 18 positions would be replaced in the guise of a valid election as the positions would have been made vacant by the courts.
The officers whose positions were to be vacated by the courts include Dr. Sam Sam Jaja (Deputy National Chairman), Bala Bawa Ka'oje (National Treasurer), Solomon Onwe (Deputy National Secretary), Umar Tsauri (Deputy National Auditor), Olisa Metuh (National Publicity Secretary), Bode Mustapha, Dr. (Mrs) Kema Chikwe (Women Leader), Victor Kwon (National Legal Adviser) and Anunakar Mustapha (National Organising Secretary) among others.
According to our source, "The National Chairman has all along been working for our ouster without us knowing. It shocked some of us when we noticed from the documents served us that he personally did some corrections with his own handwriting and the photocopied documents were given to us.
"Our only sin was that we demanded that the party structure be liberalised instead of the autocratic way it is being managed presently and that things should be done in a proper way in the spirit of equity and fair play which we have been preaching.
"Is it not obvious that the party is sinking or is this the PDP we all craved for? The fact that the party has not been able to call for the NEC in nearly one year is worrisome. Even the ordinary NWC meeting hardly holds again and if you dare raise your voice, you will get into Baba's trouble."
The source said the court would have ruled against the NWC members and the party would instead of appealing the judgement rather go for midterm convention where a new set of NWC would be produced.
The hearing in the suit seeking to sack the NWC last week was stalled as an application for substitution forced the court to adjourn.
Three members of the PDP – Abba Yale, Yahaya Aruwa Sale and Bashir Maigudu – had approached the court for an order to nullify the election of Jaja and 17 others, as well as declare their positions vacant. The plaintiffs claimed that the affected NWC members were not nominated and elected in accordance with the constitution and guidelines of the PDP and as such, should not continue to hold office.
They also premised their argument on the strength of a report said to have emanated from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wherein, the electoral body was said to have faulted the March 2012 National Convention of the party, which produced the defendants.
Sunday Mirror investigation reveals that fear has gripped some members of the NWC over Tukur's insistence of having a midterm convention to pave way for a new leadership.
Though, most of the NWC members were not willing to talk, one of them who volunteered to speak on the condition of anonymity said the development was unfortunate.
He said his colleagues in the NWC are prepared to pull down the roofs as everyone is equally guilty as charged. He recalled that Tukur was not even the candidate of the North-East caucus during the primaries conducted in Bauchi State but he was allowed to assume the chairmanship after pressure from the Presidency.
"All I can say is that we all know what transpired in Bauchi and how he eventually emerged. All I can assure you is that we were validly elected to serve four years and we will not be stampeded out of office, but if anyone thinks that he has the singular privilege of manipulating any funny games, then we will see. Don't forget we are all politicians."
It would be recalled that earlier in the year, 10 members of the NWC (excluding the former Deputy National Secretary, now acting National Secretary) had moved against Tukur over his position in the Adamawa PDP crisis.
The chairman was quoted as saying hat he was betrayed by the action of the 10 NWC members. The relationship between Tukur and his NWC members has since been strained with the chairman refusing to carry them along in most of the party businesses.
Only last week, at the launch of 'PDP Reloaded', a brainchild of Tukur, created to pursue the Goodluck Jonathan 2015 Presidency aspiration, none of the NWC members was invited.
National Mirror