From TAIWO AMODU, Abuja
There appears no respite to the festering crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the parallel national working committee of the Alhaji Kawu Baraje faction has denied any agreement with President Goodluck Jonathan on his eligibility for the party’s 2015 ticket.
Addressing newsmen after Sunday’s peace meeting with PDP governors, some party elders and the Presidency, Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio had declared Jonathan’s eligibility for the presidential ticket had been settled. He told reporters that both parties agreed that the issue of political aspiration was personal and a non-issue.
But reacting yesterday in a statement, the factional chairman, Alhaji Baraje, dismissed Governor Akpabio’s claim as misleading and not a true representation of what transpired during the peace talks.
Baraje claimed no agreement “was reached on any of the issues we tabled before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them”
Baraje said that the party has a standing mechanism on the emergence of its candidate, noting that Jonathan’s fate would be decided at the appropriate time.
“The Alhaji Abubakar Baraje-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wishes to advise Nigerians to ignore the tissue of lies and propaganda from the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur faction of the party on the outcome of our meeting with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at the Presidential Villa last Sunday, 15th September, 2013.
“We have read various misleading accounts of what transpired at that meeting between our progressive governors –Kwankwaso of Kano, Wamakko of Sokoto, Amaechi of Rivers, Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Nyako of Adamawa, Abdulfatah of Kwara and Lamido of Jigawa with President Jonathan on how to resolve the self-inflicted crisis in our party.
“We wish to specifically urge Nigerians and our supporters to ignore the concocted tales of Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum. Akpabio lied by claiming that we have accepted that President Jonathan should contest the 2015 election and that most of our demands are being met. The fact of the case is that no agreement has been reached on any of the issues we tabled before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them.”
“On whether the President should contest the 2015 election, we wish to say that we have a mechanism and system of electing our flag-bearers for any election and until the time to choose the party’s presidential flag-bearer comes, any speculation on this is just a mere academic exercise,” he said.
Even as it claimed that there was no agreement, the Alhaji Baraje faction also accused the Tukur leadership of working against the spirit of genuine reconciliation “by unilaterally setting up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of our Kano chapter”.
It declared that the composition of the committee to administer the Kano State chapter of the party was” done without recourse to either the leader of the party in Kano State, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from Kano.
“This illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and was hurriedly done just to spite Governor Kwankwaso, the party leader in the state.
“We hereby urge our people in Kano State to ignore this illegality as we have set in motion the machinery to organise a proper election as stipulated by our party’s constitution.
“We are still at a loss why Tukur and his cohorts do not want peace to reign in PDP but no matter the odds, we are very determined to ensure that peace is restored to our party with the prayers of Nigerians.
“Along this line, we once more appreciate the efforts of our party elders to resolve the current crisis bedevilling our party and wish them success irrespective of the evil designs of Tukur’s faction to elongate the crisis for selfish reasons,” he said.
Reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, told Daily Sun that the Tukur leadership would not join issues with the aggrieved faction in order not to jeopardize the trouble shooting efforts of the concerned elders of the party.
“Well, because we are doing reconciliation we will refrain from commenting on the conduct and actions of our aggrieved brothers. But we must take this: our party has a constitution and part of its stipulations is that we shouldn’t engage in authorised publicity of party disputes,” he said.
Addressing newsmen after Sunday’s peace meeting with PDP governors, some party elders and the Presidency, Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio had declared Jonathan’s eligibility for the presidential ticket had been settled. He told reporters that both parties agreed that the issue of political aspiration was personal and a non-issue.
But reacting yesterday in a statement, the factional chairman, Alhaji Baraje, dismissed Governor Akpabio’s claim as misleading and not a true representation of what transpired during the peace talks.
Baraje claimed no agreement “was reached on any of the issues we tabled before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them”
Baraje said that the party has a standing mechanism on the emergence of its candidate, noting that Jonathan’s fate would be decided at the appropriate time.
“The Alhaji Abubakar Baraje-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wishes to advise Nigerians to ignore the tissue of lies and propaganda from the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur faction of the party on the outcome of our meeting with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at the Presidential Villa last Sunday, 15th September, 2013.
“We have read various misleading accounts of what transpired at that meeting between our progressive governors –Kwankwaso of Kano, Wamakko of Sokoto, Amaechi of Rivers, Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Nyako of Adamawa, Abdulfatah of Kwara and Lamido of Jigawa with President Jonathan on how to resolve the self-inflicted crisis in our party.
“We wish to specifically urge Nigerians and our supporters to ignore the concocted tales of Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum. Akpabio lied by claiming that we have accepted that President Jonathan should contest the 2015 election and that most of our demands are being met. The fact of the case is that no agreement has been reached on any of the issues we tabled before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them.”
“On whether the President should contest the 2015 election, we wish to say that we have a mechanism and system of electing our flag-bearers for any election and until the time to choose the party’s presidential flag-bearer comes, any speculation on this is just a mere academic exercise,” he said.
Even as it claimed that there was no agreement, the Alhaji Baraje faction also accused the Tukur leadership of working against the spirit of genuine reconciliation “by unilaterally setting up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of our Kano chapter”.
It declared that the composition of the committee to administer the Kano State chapter of the party was” done without recourse to either the leader of the party in Kano State, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from Kano.
“This illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and was hurriedly done just to spite Governor Kwankwaso, the party leader in the state.
“We hereby urge our people in Kano State to ignore this illegality as we have set in motion the machinery to organise a proper election as stipulated by our party’s constitution.
“We are still at a loss why Tukur and his cohorts do not want peace to reign in PDP but no matter the odds, we are very determined to ensure that peace is restored to our party with the prayers of Nigerians.
“Along this line, we once more appreciate the efforts of our party elders to resolve the current crisis bedevilling our party and wish them success irrespective of the evil designs of Tukur’s faction to elongate the crisis for selfish reasons,” he said.
Reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, told Daily Sun that the Tukur leadership would not join issues with the aggrieved faction in order not to jeopardize the trouble shooting efforts of the concerned elders of the party.
“Well, because we are doing reconciliation we will refrain from commenting on the conduct and actions of our aggrieved brothers. But we must take this: our party has a constitution and part of its stipulations is that we shouldn’t engage in authorised publicity of party disputes,” he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment