- ...threatens to dump party
- APC, PDM condemn use of police against G7 govs
The seven aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors under the leadership of Abubakar Baraje faction yesterday gave indication that they might soon dump the party for another platform ahead of the 2015 elections.
They insisted that they are running out of patience over the inability of President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the party to meet their demands. The governors include Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Babangida (Niger) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).
The meeting of the faction of the PDP, which includes the G7 governors, could not hold at an earlier proposed venue, Sokoto Governor's lodge as the men of the Nigeria Police force barricaded the venue.
The meeting, it was gathered eventually held at Kano Governor's Lodge in Asokoro on Sunday. In a communiqué issued after their meeting and made available to National Mirror by its National Publicity Secretary, Eze Chukwuemeka, the new PDP insisted that peace was not in sight in the embattled party as President Jonathan has failed to address any of their grievances, warning that they may have no other option than to seek shelter elsewhere.
Their demands, which they said have not been met, include the need to reverse the impunity in Rivers State, where a sitting Governor was suspended from the party against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the PDP Constitution; refusal to uphold the result of the Nigerian Governors' Forum, NGF, election that saw Governor Rotimi Amaechi winning 19 to 16 votes against Governor Jonah Jang and the removal of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as PDP National Chairman.
Governor Kwankwaso over the weekend said that four options are open to the aggrieved governors; moving into an existing weak political party, continue with the dialogue, joining the All Progressive Congress, APC, and forming their own party.
According to the Baraje's faction, "The meeting noted with sadness that instead of President Jonathan to critically examine and act on some of the issues we raised, our members in various states of the federation are being persecuted, humiliated through the unfair use of state powers, arrested and put into prison as is the case in Baylesa and Gombe states just to demonstrate its disdain for peace and plot to destroy the party.
"To further demonstrate that they don't want peace in the party, Tukur has continued with his hidden agenda by setting up parallel chapters in states where he has nobody backing him to ensure that PDP is destroyed without any remedy.
"The meeting reviewed all the peace meetings so far held with President Jonathan and the Tukur faction of the party and commended our governors for the maturity they have exhibited in the course of the meetings even though all the issues we raised and presented through the General Olusegun Obasanjoled Elders' Committee to President Jonathan and his people have been bluntly turned down."
The meeting also vehemently condemned the deployment of Police to the vicinity of the Sokoto Governor's Lodge, Abuja, with a view to scuttling the caucus meeting. Eze said: "We're well aware of the evil mentality of our opponents.
This is the same Police that cannot find a solution to the menace of Boko Haram, kidnapping and other security challenges of the country but are now used to harass innocent unarmed civilians like our members.
"The meeting concluded that by urging our governors to continue to pursue peace within the party in the hope that President Jonathan and Tukur's faction would stop the persecution of the party faithful and allow common reason to prevail in our efforts to restore peace to our party but should all our efforts to restore peace to the party fail, Nigerians should know those to hold responsible for the destruction of PDP come the 2015 general election.
"The meeting reviewed the events that preceded the formation of the New PDP which main aim was to stop some of the undemocratic acts and impunity associated with the Tukur-leadership of the party.
It took stock of all the efforts by members of the group to assist in putting the PDP back to a democratic path as envisioned and envisaged by the founding fathers of the party and commended members for staying so faithful to the goals, vision and mission of the historical step we took by walking out during the ill-conceived and flawed August 2013 Special Convention of PDP."
The group, which still prides itself as the New PDP has also enlarged its Mobilisation/Contact Committee to include more sitting governors and former governors with a mandate to explore other options available to the party should the dialogue with President Jonathan fails to yield any positive result.
The Baraje faction, which said it would do everything within its powers to ensure that its vision and mission cannot be derailed by any force or group of people no matter the ploys and plots, said that the Mobilisation/ Contact Committee is expected to liaise with the five other PDP governors, who had indicated interest in joining the faction and other leaders to fashion out a workable agenda for the group.
Rising from its meeting in Abuja on Sunday, the new PDP said that reports of all the various committees set up will be presented during the next meeting of the Caucus that will hold in a week's time to ascertain how these distinguished new members particularly the governors would be received by the party.
The group, which appeared to be running out of steam for obvious financial drought, also set up a Fund/ Finance Committee mandated to source for extra funds to run the party.
The meeting also reviewed all their court cases so far and counselled the legal team to ensure that their water-tight cases are professionally handled and ensure success in all the cases involving the party henceforth.
The Sunday meeting was attended by Governors Kwankwaso Wamakko Nyako Amaechi, Lamido; former governors Adamu Aliero (Kebbi State), Bukola Saraki (Kwara State), Danjuma Goje (Gombe State) and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa State).Others included the party's National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje; Deputy Chairman Sam Sam Jaja; National Secretary Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and Vice-Chairman, North- West, Ibrahim Kazuare, among others. The excuse by the Governors of Kwara and Niger States to be absent from the meeting was tabled and accepted.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Governors' Forum, PGF, and the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, have said that continuous attack of perceived members of the opposition particularly politicians who are believed to belong to political groups and parties other than the PDP by the police could be misconstrued as the berth of fascist government.
In a separate statement, the PGF, made up of All Progressives Congress, APC, governors said that it finds it unacceptable that Nigeria Police has been reduced to partisan agents and attack dogs that only serve a part of a political party when the levels of insecurity in the country are so high.
The 11 PGF governors are Governors Kashim Shettima (Borno), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Rochas Okorochas (Imo), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Abdulaziz Abubakar (Zamfara).
The statement jointly signed by all the governors, stated that: "It is reckless to take partisan contest to levels of warfare as the Federal Government has done because this would only weaken the capacity of security operatives in responding to real security challenges."
The PGF said: "From a government that purports to obey the rule of law, the disruption of a peaceful meeting by the police is not only crude, condemnable and unwarranted, but is a reflection of government's growing intolerance and an affront on the democratic rights of Nigerians.
"Particularly disturbing and worthy of note is that if seven Nigerian governors, all of whom are constitutionally guaranteed immunity from prosecution can be manhandled in such a brutal manner, what would be the fate of ordinary citizens who seek to exercise their rights to freedom association? "It is evident that the Federal Government is unlawfully using the police for its illegal and nefarious activities for the purpose of intimidation aimed at imposing the Bamanga Tukur- led PDP on other party members and Nigerians."
While condemning the use of police to disrupt the meeting, the PGF said: "At a time when every security outfit and resources should be devoted to securing the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians, the Federal Government thinks it expedient to send the number of officers and the kind of equipment it did to harass its perceived political opponents takes governance to a new level of irresponsibility and rascality.
"Clearly, President Jonathan and his advisers have acted in complete violations of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in pursuant to some self-serving political interests."
Also, the National Chairman of the PDM, Mallam Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, described the latest clampdown on opposition politicians and groups as, "nothing but political witch-hunting and shameless display of intolerance.
In a statement signed by his media advisor, Alaba Yusuf, Ibrahim said one of the latest victims of this totalitarianism, Mrs. Aisha Jummai Alhassan, a serving female senator from Taraba State, has her business premises targeted for demolition because she belongs to a faction of PDP.
"This is tyranny of the highest order and a clear breach of citizens' rights to freedom of association as ingrained in our country's constitution," he said.
Ibrahim added: "President Jonathan should spend his energy fighting the rot inside his party and government. Let him deploy his uncommon zeal in dealing with the opposition to fighting the monumental level of corruption in which his favourite ministers are involved. Let him cleanse the ministries of Petroleum, Aviation, Niger Delta and Defense of corruption and stop industrial-scale oil theft in the creeks. Then we will know he is serious about solving Nigeria's problems.
Jonathan should stop chasing shadows and overheating the polity." PDM further stressed that: "It is no longer news the grave intimidation and harassment being dished out to the G7.
The precarious political situation in Rivers and Adamawa states where constituted political structures are daily being undermined or completely usurped is also unacceptable. These acts of wickedness, if not nipped in the bud, will spell doom for our nascent democracy.
They are avoidable self-destructive moves being pushed by vengeful characters who have no role in building the democracy we now have....
"All these shady and shoddy show of raw and crude exhibition of power of incumbency, constitute real bad omen for a country that just won a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations, UN. No country can truly grow or develop when its government oppresses the citizens and make people to live in abject poverty, fear and insecurity. "
Source: President yet to address our grievances –New PDP (http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/president-yet-to-address-our-grievances-new-pdp/)