Tukur Refuses to Resign as PDP NEC Meets Tomorrow Bamanga Tukur •16 NWC members agree to step down •Party to hold mini-convention July 15 •Jonathan to head reconciliation committee Chuks Okocha and Muhammad Bello Barring any last minute changes, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slated July 15 to hold a mini-national convention to endorse the changes in the National Working Committee (NWC) expected to take place during tomorrow’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party. Before the mini-national convention, however, the party will also hold zonal congresses on July 13 nationwide. The purpose of the zonal congresses and mini-convention isto hold elections into positions for those 16 members of the NWC that the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had indicated that their election did not meet the PDPelection guidelines. Though the national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, may not be affected after all by the resignation galoreof other NWC members, it was gathered that the party’s 16 NWC members who will tender their resignation tomorrow at the NEC meeting, were those affected by the INEC report. Insisting that he was not affectedby the purge of NWC members, Tukur, who was at the State House, Abuja, yesterday, told reporters at the end of a one-hourmeeting of the NWC with President Goodluck Jonathan, that hewould not quit asspeculated. Others expected to retain their seats are the national financial secretary of the PDP and the national auditor. However, a partysource said that position of national secretary, whoseposition has beenvacant following the removal of Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola by a Federal High Court, would also contested at the mini-convention. Tukur said all the eight people, including their deputies and the ex-officio members representing the south-west zonewho were not voted for during the March 2012 convention are those that will beaffected by the purge. This exercise, theparty chairman said, covered eight of the NWC officials and their deputies who willdrop their portfolios and seek fresh mandates if theyso wished. Tukur, who was flanked by the National Publicity Secetary, Olisa Metuh, denied that he would be stepping down tomorrow, stating with a hint of irritation: “It is not true that I am resigning. Resign for what? It is not true at all. Weare here to run the PDP and we have done so andwe will continue to run the PDP.” Metuh, who interjected as his principal was trying to explain himself, added: “It is not true thechairman is resigning. The chairman is not only in office, he is in power. In PDP, there is no vacancy in the national chairmanship.” On the purpose of the meeting with the president, Tukur pointed out that the meeting was held to regularise the PDP family because of INEC’sobservation. “The meeting was about regularising the family of PDP because there was the INEC observation, some of the members of the NWC were not properly elected so it has to be regularised. “Those who havenot been elected will resign and they will go back, they will have theopportunity to regularise their positions as NWC members,” he said. Differing with Tukur, however, the Deputy Senate President,Ike Ekwerenmadu, told correspondents at the close of their meeting with the president that the party was yet to reach a final decision on the issue of whether the chairman should resign or not. Instead, he said the leadership of the party was still weighing its options while consulting with stakeholders with a view to moving forward. “We are still consulting. In the evening, we are going to have a meeting of the national caucus of the party and look at all the options available to the party. We hope that by tomorrow or later this evening we will have a position of the PDP on this issue,” he said. Saying that their meeting with thepresident was a “routine consultation”, Ekwerenmadu added: “But this one had to do with our party issues because we are of the same political party. It is essentially a party affair.” On why only four leaders of the National Assembly attended the meeting, he said: “You know we are on break and some have travelled. But because of the consultations going on, some are on their way back. The speaker is on his way back to Abuja, the senate president ought to have travelled to China,he is also on his way back. He haschanged his plansto come back. “The senate leader is also on his way back from Calabar, theHouse leader is also on her way back. I am sure inthe next one houror two, they will all be back because we are on vacation and this meeting wasquite impromptu. We have contacted all of them and they are all coming back.” On whether the National Assembly was concerned about the PDP crises, hesaid: “Every family has their own issues, the PDP is no exception.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:31:49 +0000
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