FROM TAIWO AMODU, ABUJA
Members of the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are expected to meet in Abuja today to discuss way forward for the group, which proclaimed itself the New PDP. The meeting will hold at the Sokoto State governor's lodge, Asokoro, Abuja.
It was learnt that the agenda of today's meeting of the faction under the leadership of Alhaji Kawu Baraje is how to address the credibility crisis facing the faction as a result of the judgment of a Federal High Court, which had proclaimed the parallel national working committee illegal.
Justice Elvis Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja had restrained the Baraje group from parading itself as the authentic leadership of the party and further declared the party's national working committee under Bamanga Tukur as the duly constituted national executive of the party.
According to the judge, with the provision of Section 222 and 223 of the Electoral Act as amended and the PDP Constitution as amended the
Abubakar Baraje-led faction could not nullify the PDP convention that brought Tukur and the NWC to power.
Before the judgment that has unsettled the group, the INEC had similarly refused its request to be accorded recognition as the authentic PDP NWC.
Acting Secretary of the Commission, U.F. Usman in his response, addressed to the faction National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola had noted that INEC was part of the team that observed the 24th March, 2012 national convention that produced Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as national chairman of the party and the 31st August, 2013 special national convention, where his position as national chairman was reaffirmed.
The Baraje group had during the week filed notice of appeal against the judgment.
Today's meeting promises to be stormy, as some members of the faction seeking for soft-landing for themselves are smarting to advance the argument that the group should pursue the reconciliation option further, as against the stance for an alternative political platform coming from certain hardliners within its fold.
Recall that about 19 members of the Adamawa State governor's cabinet Murtala Nyako during the week defected to the main rival party, the All Progressives Congress in the state.
Those championing restraints are governors Sule Lamido and Aliyu Wamakko, governors of Jigawa and Adamawa states, respectively.
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