**UNPREDICTABLE!** Goodluck Has Directed Bamanga,PDP NWC To Resign Before Thursday There are strong indications that President Goodluck Jonathan may have directed the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, and other members of the PDP National Working Committee to resign. It was gathered on Monday that Jonathan gave the directive after the presidential committee on the PDP crises headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Anyim, submitted its report to him in Abuja . The order and submission of the report noted that the party was drifting. A member of the presidential committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Tukur and the other NWC members would tender their resignation letters at the party’s National Executive Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday in Abuja. He said apart from the PDP internal crises, the President was concerned about the position of the Independent National Electoral Commission on the manner majority of the NWC members came to office. INEC had queried the affirmation method that returned most of the NWC members to office. It was also gathered that the NWC members were told that they risked being sacked if they failed to quit before Thursday. A PDP source said, “If they fail to resign before Thursday, they will be sacked.” He added that the Presidency had already directed that a caretaker committee be set up in place of the NWC. When contacted, a member of the NWC, who wondered how Jonathan’s directive was leaked, merely said it was true. “How did the story leak? Yes, it is true. I am already packing my things from my office, “ he said. But another NWC member, who also admitted that they would cease to hold office before Friday, said, “We are not resigning because President Jonathan asked us to do so. If we resign, it will be because of the report by INEC. We will be resigning to protect the integrity of INEC.” A national leader of the PDP confirmed the looming dissolution of the NWC, saying, “You remember INEC had said that it does not recognise the election of a majority of them (NWC members). “The fear is that one of those on the NWC could go to court and aver that the election that produced him or her was illegal. Anybody could go to court on that score too. The party may have problem at that point.” A member of the presidential committee which has governors Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Goodwill Akpabio, (Akwa Ibom); Theodore Orji (Abia ); Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); and Gabriel Suswam (Benue), as some of its members, had said the panel was not pleased with happenings in the PDP. He said, “Our report, which might not please the President and the leadership of the party, is that the party is drifting. We have told him not to allow the party disintegrate further because whether we like it or not, the party is drifting dangerously and we have to arrest that. “We have put in the report that some actions of the National Working Committee are repressive and unnecessary. “We wondered why the party refused to hold its NEC for about a year, which to us amounts to breaching of the party’s constitution.” The party’s constitution stipulates that NEC must hold at least once in a quarter. The panel, which also has the Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Ogiadhome; and the Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak, as members therefore recommended the immediate holding of the NEC meeting, which has not taken place since July 2012. The Board of Trustees of the party is expected to meet in Abuja on Wednesday.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:09:56 +0000