Politics on display. Battle in ruling party Police Seal- Off ‘New PDP’ Office . Withdraw Baraje, Saraki’s Security . Police: We’re Acting on Court Orders . G-7 Tenders 2010 Agreement with GEJ Before Obasanjo Panel The factional crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worsened yesterday with the police sealing off the headquarters of the New PDP headed by Abubakar Baraje. The factional secretariat of the PDP is located along Orji River Street, by Panama, in Maitama District of Abuja The Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Femi Ogunbayode, told our correspondent last night that the police took the action to ensure there was no breach of the peace, law and order in view, he explained, of a court order directing the two factions to maintain the status quo. Sunday Trust learnt further that the security details attached to the interim National Chairman of the ‘New PDP,’ Alhaji Kawu Baraje have been withdrawn. Also, the security personnel attached to Senator Bukola Saraki, a former Governor of Kwara State, in Abuja and Ilorin, have also been withdrawn. The closure of the ‘New PDP’s’ secretariat came a day after a meeting called by party elders to reconcile the warring factions ended in a deadlock. Elders present at the meeting included former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former military president Ibrahim Babangida, chairman of the PDP board of trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, and former PDP chairmen Dr Ahmadu Ali and Chief Barnabas Gemade. Sunday Trust learnt that at the meeting, the Baraje faction presented to the elders a communiqué issued by 20 PDP governors on December 16, 2010 “at the end of an emergency meeting of the PDP”. The last paragraph of the communiqué noted the governors’ recognition of the Yar’adua/ Jonathan ticket and their support for President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2011 election as the PDP presidential candidate “for a period of four years only”. The New PDP was represented at the meeting by Baraje, its Deputy National Chairman, Dr Sam Sam Jaja, former Kwara State Governor, Dr Bukola Saraki; the faction’s National Secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and Governors Rotimi Amaechi, Sule Lamido and Aliyu Wamako. The representatives, it was gathered, maintained their stance on the “four years only” agreement, insisting that President Jonathan should forget any re-election ambition in 2015. Moreover, they asked that the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur be removed from that position. But the mainstream PDP team, led by Tukur, would have none of those demands, resulting in a stalemate. Oyinlola in a press statement last night, condemned the court order Ogunbayode referred to for the police action as “a non- existent court injunction”. The National Secretary fumed in the press release: “The whole world knows that Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Friday refused to grant Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s application for an ex-parte injunction against our party’s executive. The judge asked parties to maintain the status quo. His judgment was a reinforcement of an early order of the Lagos High Court which also asked parties to maintain the status quo. Now, should Nigerians conclude that Tukur’s interpretation of status quo is this crude display of naked power and undisguised impunity?” Oyiniola accused Tukur of not only “willfully disobeying the various courts which have made pronouncements on this matter,” but also “spicing up his love for impunity with this reckless misuse of state power by misleading the police”. The statement “wondered why Tukur, who appeared before the party’s elders on Friday ostensibly in search of peace, could, in less than 12 hours later, start another round of acts of impunity.” The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, has, however, defended the closure, saying it was in order. “Nothing is wrong with the police seal-off of the secretariat of the breakaway members. The action is based on an order of the court given by Justice E. L. Chukwu of the Federal High Court Abuja,” Metuh said in Lagos. To him, the police, by mobilising men to seal the building, “were just obeying the court order in that regard.” According to him: “There was no way the headquarters could be allowed to function and those concerned parade themselves as officers of PDP, based on the said order. By the order of Justice E. L. Chukwu, no other group should have an office and call it New PDP office. The sealing off the headquarters is in order.” Lawyers have been speaking on Tukur’s threat to declare vacant legislative seats of 22 senators and 57 House of Representatives PDP members who had openly declared their support for the Baraje faction. Lawyers Sunday Trust spoke with on the threat were emphatic the PDP chairman had no locus standi to declare the seats vacant. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Barrister Yahaya Mahmood, explaining how the Nigerian Constitution says a legislator can lose his seat in the National Assembly, affirmed that the PDP chairman cannot declare the seat of any federal legislator vacant. “I don’t think he has that power”, he said. Ahmed Raji, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Tukur’s “body language” amounted to “an early warning” to the lawmakers of the consequences awaiting them should they join another party. Raji, however, corroborated Mahmood’s position that Tukur cannot declare any seat vacant in the National Assembly. The seats, he informed, can only be declared vacant by the Speaker of the House or the Senate President. Saying the 1999 Constitution provides for how Governors and members of the National and State Assemblies shall vacate their seats or be removed, he stressed “there is no constitutional role or duty given to the Chairman of a political party in that regard. A Kano-based lawyer, Abubakar Malami, another SAN, agreed. “It is a judicial function exercisable by only a court of law after due determination of the existence of a faction or otherwise in a political party”, Malami said. In Sokoto State, the PDP executives have thrown their weight behind Governor Wamako. The party’s Secretary in the state, Aminu Bello Sokoto asserted that “the whole PDP executives across the state are solidly behind” the governor. Bello advised the national leadership of the PDP under Tukur to stick to the “ideals of its founding fathers, which include belief in internal democracy.” Another PDP chieftain in the state, Alhaji Muhammadu Dangogo said the aggrieved party members would remain in the new PDP until the lapses in the old PDP were corrected. Muhammadu blamed the national leadership of the PDP for the travails of the party, adding that “PDP members from Sokoto State, right from the Speaker, House of Representatives to councillors are behind Wamakko.” Meanwhile, a group under the aegis of the Peoples Democratic Party Youths Exponents has called on the PDP factional members to bury their hatchet and consider the progress of the nation. “It is no more news that the nation is faced with so many troubling situations, ranging from the ASUU strike and the political crises in Anambra, Rivers and Taraba States to a myriad of security challenges. So it will be inhuman for anybody to add to these crises”, the group noted in a statement signed by its chairman, Hassan Dangaladima. Also suggesting a way out of the impasse, a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode issued a statement last night advising President Jonathan to work with Obasanjo to achieve peace in the party. The statement said, “The only hope left for the PDP is if President Goodluck Jonathan listens to President Olusegun Obasanjo and those behind him and drops his 2015 ambition. Failing that, the fight in the PDP will never end. The truth is that Obasanjo is one of the greatest political strategists that Nigeria has ever known and he is an extremely dangerous adversary. I know him well and his ways are deep. Those close to Jonathan would do well to advise him to get on his knees and beg his political mentor. Only Obasanjo, with the help and support of President Ibrahim Babangida and Vice President Abubakar Atiku, has the power, authority and moral gravitas within the PDP to call the dissidents to order and rally their support. Without that, President Goodluck Jonathan is finished and he should just wave goodbye to his 2015 re-election ambition.”
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 13:13:26 +0000
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