The Nation Newspaper

Tag: BOT

  • We’ve reclaimed Ekiti PDP, says BoT chief

    We’ve reclaimed Ekiti PDP, says BoT chief

    Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction loyal to Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose have lost the rights to vote at the party’s National Convention due to hold in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, tomorrow.

    A member of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Clement Awoyelu, yesterday said this in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, during the swearing-in of the State Executive Committee (SEC) led by Chief Williams Ajayi.

    Ajayi and members of his executive were sworn into office by a lawyer, Olu Jayeoba.

    The faction is believed to be loyal to the senator representing Ogun East, Buruji Kashamu.

    Ajayi promised to restore sanity to the party, reconcile leaders and members who  left.

    The inauguration followed a Federal High Court ruling, which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP not to recognise the Gboyega Oguntuase-led exco that is loyal to Fayose.

    Justice Taiwo Taiwo ordered Oguntuase and others elected at a parallel congress to stop parading themselves as executive members of the party, pending the determination of the motion on notice.

    Speaking at the inauguration, Awoyelu, who is also a member of the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC), said the control of the party had been taken away from Fayose.

    Awoyelu, who was Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate between 2003 and 2007, affirmed that members of the Fayose faction will not be allowed into the venue of the Port Harcourt convention.

    According to Awoyelu, reclaiming the party from Fayose remains the best option for the party to avert imminent destruction.

    Awoyelu said party elders would not fold their arms and allow the governor to turn the PDP into his personal estate.

    He said it was wrong for Fayose to take official meetings to his house in his hometown, Afao-Ekiti, rather than the PDP secretariat in Ado Ekiti.

    The PDP BoT member alleged that  Fayose handpicked executives at the ward, local government and state levels.

    He added that the party would be repositioned in line with the dream of its founding fathers.

    The party leader said the national leadership has compiled the list of delegates to vote at the National Convention.

    He said: “I have been in  party politics for more than 50 years and that is why we are trying to restructure our party.

    “We will never sleep until we reclaim our party from Ayo Fayose. We are ready to correct all the wrongs in our party.

    “I have never seen a state where a governor will appoint councillorship candidates.

    “Fayose has appropriated the party to himself. He has not attended any meeting at the party secretariat; instead, he relocated the party to his house in Afao-Ekiti. These we will not tolerate.

    “I have been a member of the PDP National Executive Committee since 1998, Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan attended meetings at Wadata Plaza in Abuja.

    “We thank God that the election of the new SEC and the verdict of the court have shown that God and the people have rejected the governor. We have

  • PDP reschedules National Caucus, BOT, NEC meetings

    PDP reschedules National Caucus, BOT, NEC meetings

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rescheduled the meetings of its National Caucus, Board of Trustees (BOT) and the National Executive Committee (NEC).

    The information is contained in a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Tuesday in Abuja.

    It said that while the party’s national caucus meeting had been rescheduled for March 6 at 7 p.m, the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting would hold on March 7 at 11 a.m.

    It noted that the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting would also hold on March 7 at 2 p.m.

    “The leadership of the party deeply regrets any inconveniences that may be caused by this adjustment,” it added.

  • Tension in Edo PDP over non disbursement of election fund

    Tension in Edo PDP over non disbursement of election fund

    The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state heightened Tuesday following the revelation by members of the party that the leadership of the party in the state led by Chief Dan Orbih allegedly received the sum of N500million for the presidential election of former President Goodluck Jonathan without the knowledge of leaders of the party.

    Nation gathered that the money which is part of the N2.1 billion which was shared by the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, was said to have been paid into the account of the Edo state PDP through Hartman Company, belonging to the former chairman BOT of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih.

    Nation was reliably informed that the matter which is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) led the commission to contact the Orbih led Executive if such amount was received in the state.

    It was learnt that in their reply to the Commission, the party Executive agreed that the said amount was received and was disbursed to party Executives and leaders across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state for the Jonathan Campaign.

    The revelation angered both some members of the state Exco of PDP and party leaders who expressed shock that they never knew that such money came. And that was part of the reasons why most of the leaders called for the removal of the Orbih led Exco.

    A leader of the party in the state, who spoke to Nation, “said we are petitioning the EFCC to also investigate how the money was disbursed in Edo state because we never knew about the money until we learnt from Orbih’s response to the EFCC that the money was received. So they should tell us who they gave the money to. We will formally address the media on this issue.”

  • BoT to adamant Sheriff: you’re not fit to lead PDP

    BoT to adamant Sheriff: you’re not fit to lead PDP

    Acting chair: I won’t resign 

    ‘Fani-Kayode won’t go scot free’

    Members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday rose from a marathon meeting to tell Chairman Ali Modu Sheriff —resign.

    Acting BoT chairman Senator Walid Jibrin, who presided over the meeting held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, spoke on behalf of the trustees, saying as the conscience of the PDP, the BoT was in the best position to know the right candidate for the job.

    The trustees, he said were consulting with other organs of the party on easing out Sheriff.

    “We are going to propose viable solution to this problem after we must have consulted with other organs and relevant stakeholders in the party,” Jibrin said. He declined further comments.

    At the meeting were Prof. Jerry Gana, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, Alhaji Shuabu Oyedokun, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, Senator Stella Omu, Senator Jonah Jang, Mrs. Josephine Anenih, Senator Adolphus Wabara, Abdullahi Kure and Maina Waziri, among others.

    But Sheriff begged his opponents to forgive him.

    The former Borno State governor, who spoke at the party secretariat shortly after he officially took over the leadership, said he would not step down.

    “I won’t resign because the leadership of the party, in their wisdom, chose me to lead the PDP for the purpose of rebuilding and repositioning the party at this critical period,” Sheriff said.

    The chairman said he would promptly embark on consultations with opposing groups and stakeholders with the view to seeking reconciliation and acceptance from all.

    “I will leave no stone unturned. I will go to everybody for support. I will bring everybody on board. Let those who were not consulted before I was appointed forgive all of us for whatever wrongs have been made.

    “Let us put our differences behind us so that we can overcome our challenges and rebuild the party together. If all stakeholders agree to build the party, PDP will become the biggest party in Nigeria again,” Sheriff pleaded.

    According to him, it is normal for people to be aggrieved in such situations, but, in his view, the aggrieved parties should explore internal mechanisms to resolve the differences.

    He described aggrieved parties as those who truly love the PDP, adding however that going to the media with their grievances would not solve the problem.

    Sheriff promised to unfold his agenda as soon as he gets briefed on the party’s status.

    Asked whether he would only complete the truncated tenure of the immediate past chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, which is expected to end next month, Sheriff replied that the party leadership would decide the length of his tenure “at the appropriate time”.

    The chairman promised to initiate discussions with chieftains of the party who defected to other parties before the 2015 general elections, with the view to wooing them back to PDP.

    He dismissed reports linking him to the Boko Haram terror group, saying he never sponsored the sect. According to him, he was being targeted because he fought the group when he was governor.

    According to him, no court has ever linked him to Boko Haram and reports linking him to the group emanated from the imagination of the writers.

    “Boko Haram killed my own brother. They killed members of my family. So, why should I sponsor people to kill my own brother, my own family? I am not a fanatic. I love to enjoy my life.

    “Boko Haram are criminals who live in the bush and eat once a day. I believe their sponsors will be caught at the end of the day. I have nothing to do with Boko Haram,” Sheriff said.

    He singled out a former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode among the people linking him with the terror sect, saying “this time around, people like Fani-Kayode will not go scot-free”.

    Sheriff also pointed accusing finger at a former governor of the old Gongola State, Amb. Wilberforce Juta, who is leading the PDP Rescue Group demanding his resignation.

    “Juta has no moral ground to ask me to resign because he was among the people that contested the position with me. He scored only one vote and now he has turned around to ask me to resign.

    “How can a person that got only one vote ask me to resign. Where is credibility; where is justice? If he did not contest the position with me, maybe I would have listened to him,” he said.

    On why he left the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the formative stage, Sheriff said he left on principles, which he said he would not divulge in public.

    He promised to make available to the PDP the same instruments with which he helped to make the APC attractive to Nigerians.

  • BoT gives Jonathan March deadline to reject Sheriff

    BoT gives Jonathan March deadline to reject Sheriff

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders are still quarelling over the choice of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as Acting National Chairman.

    Some former ministers and members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) have raised a committee to meet with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who is to be told —reject Sheriff or face a mass exodus. The deadline is March.

    Sheriff barged into a BoT session yesterday but members only promised to get back to him on his plea for acceptance.

    The BoT resolved not to endorse Sheriff. It may advertise the job, a source hinted.

    But the  anti-Sheriff forces in the party and some members of the National Working Committee(NWC) are pushing for the tenure of the acting chairman to end in March.

    Sheriff succeeded Adamu Mu’azu whose tenure ought to end in March.

    The team will tell Dr. Jonathan of the “grave implications”of picking Sheriff to lead the PDP.

    The former ministers and BoT members  pledged not to attend any meeting with Sheriff or his representatives.

    A source said: “We have asked a team to meet Jonathan and draw his attention to the grave implications of having Sheriff as PDP national chairman.

    “We believe the ex-President was ill-informed.We want Jonathan to withdraw his backing so that Sheriff can step aside in March.

    “ We have weighed all options and the only midstream approach now is to prevail on Sheriff to complete Muazu’s tenure and quit in March.

    “So Jonathan has to choose between the larger interest of the party and Sheriff.”

    An ex-Minister said: “Well, at our session, some of us made it known that we cannot even wait till the end of March to determine our stay in PDP. Once Sheriff is in charge, we will abandon PDP for another party.

    “The truth is dawning even on some of the governors and NWC members that Sheriff’s selection was unpopular among Nigerians. We now have deficit in the opposition politics we are playing because we have to seek equity with clean hands. This is why he should step down in March.”

    A party source said Sheriff is thinking of completing his tenure  in 2018 – when PDP would have been in good stead to confront the All Progressives. Congress (APC) at the polls in 2019.

    The source said: “Pro-Sheriff governors and leaders want him to stay till 2018 in line with the “secret agreement” which led to his selection as the new PDP chairman.

    “They said they will not allow any subtle plot to force Sheriff to step down in March. This is the situation we are now. No doubt, there is tension in the party. We are sharply divided.”

    Despite the opposition against Sheriff, two former Ministers( Bala Mohammed and Ibrahim Shekarau) have visited to congratulate him.

    “At our meeting, some members expressed reservations on these ex-ministers’ visit to Sheriff,” another source said.

    Sheriff continued his peace drive yesterday when he stormed a session of the BOT.

    He pleaded with BOT members to give him a chance and vowed that “PDP will bounce back”.

    A BOT member said: “Sheriff came to our meeting, unaccompanied by the NWC members. He virtually begged us to give him a chance to lead the party.

    “We listened to him but we were unanimous that he is not the one needed to lead PDP. He wanted our endorsement but we hold him that we will get back to him.

    “We did not make any commitment to Sheriff. At our meeting, we resolved not to accept his candidature.”

  • PDP shifts date of National Caucus meeting, others

    PDP shifts date of National Caucus meeting, others

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) has shifted the meetings of key statutory organs of the party by one week.

    The shift according to a statement signed by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Monday in Abuja, was in view of requests by critical, stakeholders and leaders of the party.

    “In the new schedule, the meeting of the National Caucus of the party has been shifted from Feb. 9 to Feb. 15, at 7p.m.

    “In the same vein, the meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) will now hold in the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 16.”

    It added that the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting would also hold on Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.

    “The NWC deeply regrets any inconveniences that may be caused by this shift in dates.”

  • PDP set for BoT, NEC meeting

    PDP set for BoT, NEC meeting

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set to hold its Board of Trustees (BoT), National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings anytime soon.

    The meetings would be preceded by the party’s caucus meeting scheduled to hold next week, a statement last night by the National Secretary of the PDP, Prof. Wale Oladipo, said.

    According to Oladipo, the decisions were taken at the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) weekly meeting on Thursday.

    The party scribe added that the NWC was joined in the meeting at the PDP Abuja secretariat by state chapter chairmen and zonal vice chairmen across the six zones.

    “The meeting urged leaders to sensitize members across the country towards the reform programs of the party, which would culminate in the summoning of caucus next week, thereafter BOT and NEC to approve the draft guideline for the congresses and national convention”.

    According to the statement, resolutions taken at the joint meeting were: “To charge all its members to remain committed to the growth and development of the party.

    “That the PDP still remains the only true national political party well equipped to hold the national character of the country.

    “That all organs of the party national wide should be galvanized toward the branding project of PDP that should take back power by 2019.”

  • PDP BoT meeting postponed indefinitely

    PDP BoT meeting postponed indefinitely

    A meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT) scheduled to hold today has been postponed indefinitely.

    This is the second time the meeting is being postponed.

    The one initially scheduled for December 18 was called off when it failed to form a quorum.

    Secretary of the BoT Senator Walid Jibrin confirmed the postponement in a telephone chat with our correspondent yesterday.

    Jibrin said the postponement was to allow wider consultation among key party chieftains, owing to the sensitivity of the issues on the agenda.

    His words: “We can no longer hold the meeting as scheduled because we discovered that we need wider consultation to enable us take far-reaching decisions.

    “We need time to hold consultations with our National Assembly Caucus, the National Executive Committee (NEC), the zonal caucuses, chairmen of state chapters and other key stakeholders.”

    Jibrin, in December, announced a January 14 date for the meeting, when the one scheduled for December 18 failed to hold.

    The meeting was to set in motion machinery for the emergence of a substantive BoT chairman.

    The position is being occupied by Dr. Bello Hailru Mohammed in acting capacity, following the resignation of the substantive chair, Chief Tony Anenih, in July 2015.

    According to him, the three months stipulated by the party’s constitution for any occupant of the office in acting capacity and the one month grace had elapsed.

    Bello Haliru is on trial for his involvement in the controversial $2.1 billion arms cash scam.

    The party chieftain was alleged to have collected about N300 million from the embattled ex-National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki.

    He is on bail and the court has confined him to his hospital bed, where he is recuperating after surgery. He is expected to attend court from his hospital bed.

  • PDP BoT backs Buhari’s anti-graft war

    PDP BoT backs Buhari’s anti-graft war

    The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign.

    Secretary of the BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, in a chat with journalists at the party’s secretariat on Friday, said the party would support any leader who is ready to rid the nation of corruption.

    Senator Jibrin spoke in the backdrop of the ongoing corruption and money laundering trial of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki and other PDP chieftains.

    According to him, the party would support every legal measure put in place to recover funds from those who looted the treasury, adding however that the process must respect the rule of law.

    “The BoT of the PDP does not condone corruption in any form. Anyone found guilty should be dealt with according to the laws of the land. We are in support of any leader who is ready to rid the country of corruption,” the BoT scribe said.

    Senator Jibrin however cautioned against what he described as stigmatization of the PDP as a party of corrupt people and selective prosecution of the anti- graft war.

    “It is wrong for anyone to say everybody in PDP is corrupt. Corrupt people are everywhere in the country. They are in every sector of the national economy and their activities have given Nigeria a negative image in the eyes of the international community.

    “So it is the duty of every Nigerian to support the fight against corruption. But due process must be followed, in line with the laws of the land,” Jibrin added.

    The party chief disclosed that the BoT members will meet on January 14 where a substantive BoT chairman will emerge.

    The position is currently being occupied by Dr. Bello Hailru Mohammed in acting capacity, following the resignation of Chief Tony Anenih in July.

    According to him, the three months stipulated by the party’s constitution for any occupant in acting capacity and one month period of grace had since elapsed.

    He added that the meeting will also discuss the ongoing corruption trial of some of the party’s chieftains, with the view to taking a common position on the matter.

    Senator Jibrin added that other court cases arising from the conduct of the last general elections will also be discussed.

    The BoT meeting held on Friday failed to form the needed quorum. Jibrin attributed it to the inability of many of its members to connect flights to Abuja as a result of inclement weather.

    He also cited what he described as very crucial party activities going on in states like Ekiti, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers which prevented some BoT members from attending the meeting.

  • New Governing Council, BoT for AREDOLS

    The Chairman, Association of Real Estate Developers of Lagos State (AREDOLS), Nureni Ayinde Akinsanya, has reiterated the need for developers to ensure global best practices in building to reduce the incidence of collapse being witnessed nationwide.

    He spoke at the maiden inauguration of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and Governing Council of the association held at its new secretariat at Ebute- Metta.

    According to him, the inauguration marked a historic moment in the life of the association adding that it was part of the achievement of the present executive.

    The AREDOLS helmsman pointed out, that the inauguration of the Governing Council would move the association forward. He was quick to add, that the development would also provide a platform for an all-inclusive decision making by the executive.

    He admonished all members of the Governing Council to put in their efforts with a view to taking the association to the next level.

    His words: “This is a special call to other members for adequate cooperation with the present executive committee and the Governing Council at large I order to sustain the achievements made so far and also to do more before the end of the life of the present executive.”