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Tag: PDP crisis

  • PDP crisis: Court orders party, INEC to delete Oyinlola’s name as National Secretary

    PDP crisis: Court orders party, INEC to delete Oyinlola’s name as National Secretary

    Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete the name of former Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, from their records as PDP’s National Secretary.

    Justice Abdulkadir Abdul-Kafarati in a ruling yesterday ordered the PDP and INEC to replace Oyinlola with Professor Adewale Oladipo, nominated by the Southwest PDP at the extra-ordinary zonal congress held in Ibadan (Oyo State) on July 13 this year.

    The judge ordered PDP and INEC to comply with the order within three days.

    “A consequential order of this court directing the 2nd and 3rd defendants to comply, within three days of this order, with the terms of the judgment of the court requiring rectification of the records of the 2nd defendant to reflect the replacement of the 1st defendant (Oyinlola) with Prof. Adewale Oladipo.”

    The judge also extended to July 13 this year, the time limit he had granted in the court’s January 11 judgment for the conduct of the zonal congress.

    He also deemed Prof. Oladipo’s nomination by the congress as replacement for Oyinlola “as proper and due compliance with the January 11 judgment.”

    The ruling was on a motion on notice filed by Adebayo Dayo (Chairman) and Semiu Sodipo (Secretary) for themselves and the Ogun State chapter of the PDP.

    Listed as defendants were Oyinlola, PDP and INEC.

    The court had in the January 11 judgment ordered the removal of Oyinlola from office and the conduct of a fresh congress by the Southwest PDP for the purpose of nominating a replacement for Oyinlola.

    In granting the applicants’ prayers yesterday, Justice Abdul-Kafarati discountenanced arguments by Oyinlola and PDP that the court was funtus officio, having earlier delivered a judgment in the case.

    The judge held that the fresh application was neither meant to reopen the case nor to effect changes it the earlier delivered judgment, but to regularise the steps taken in compliance with the judgment.

    On Oyinlola’s argument that the court could no longer consider the application because he had appealed the judgment, the judge held that the application would have no effect on the judgment and the appeal filed.

    He noted that there was no evidence before the court that the record in respect of Oyinlola’s appeal had been transmitted to the appellate court.

    Justice Abdul-Kafarati held that the mere filing of a notice of appeal does not serve as a ground to stay proceedings.

    The judge however refused attempt by applicants’ lawyer, Babs Akinwunmi, to move a motion ex-parte seeking leave for substituted service of court documents relating to a pending contempt case on Oyinlola, factional Chairman of PDP, Kawu Baraje and a chieftain of the party, Sam Jaja.

    Akinwunmi had told the court that the applicants had made unsuccessful attempts to effect personal service of the documents on the three alleged contemnors.

    The judge advised the applicants to file fresh affidavit indicating the failed attempts they had made to serve the defendants.

    The applicants are by the contempt proceedings, praying the court to commit Oyinlola to prison over his alleged continuous claim to being the party’s National Secretary despite the judgment sacking him.

    They are equally seeking the jailing of Baraje and Jaja for allegedly aiding Oyinlola to flout the court’s judgment.

  • ‘Tukur caused PDP crisis’

    A lawmaker representing Rivers Southeast, Senator Magnus Abe, has said the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Bamanga Tukur, is the party’s major problem.

    Abe, who spoke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, said the crisis rocking the PDP was self-inflicted by its leadership, following its refusal to follow the party’s guidelines.

    He said: “The division started because members don’t like what Tukur is doing in the party. He disregards party’s rules, execution of programmes and actions. His as well as the injecting of clauses into the party’s constitution without due consultation is an unacceptable impunity.”

    Abe, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), said senators were not thinking of impeaching anybody because there was no reason for such action.

    According to him, the Senate remains united under David Mark.

    He said the division in the party might affect the contributions of PDP members in the National Assembly and their voting on certain issues if it was not resolved.

    The senator urged Nigerians, especially politicians, against bringing up primordial sentiments into the polity.

    He also advised against political decisions that could haunt the country’s future.

    Said he: “Bringing up primordial sentiments into our politics will cost us more. We are talking about zoning, which was put in place for the benefit of the minority. In the emotion of the moment, people should know that in a country like this, there is today and there is tomorrow. Let us not take decisions today that will put tomorrow at risk.”

  • PDP crisis: Jonathan’s impeachment ’ll be considered on merit — Reps spokesman

    PDP crisis: Jonathan’s impeachment ’ll be considered on merit — Reps spokesman

    House of Representatives spokesman, Hon Zakari Mohammed, said yesterday that the House would not rush into taking a decision on any motion on the impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan over the ongoing PDP crisis.

    He disclosed this during a media chat at the National Assembly where he added that any motion to that effect would be considered on its merits.

    He further stated: “Every issue will be looked at according to its merit. The floor will determine what happens. To now say we will impeach Mr. X means we have made up our minds on what we would do.

    “There must be issues that will generate impeachment, and it is the floor that will decide whether these issues are impeachable or not.”

    He explained that the argument that the matter was an internal one that should be kept within the PDP and not taken to the National Assembly was faulty because the party is in the majority and what affects the PDP affects the entire House.

    “Whatever affects the PDP in the House will definitely affect the colouration of the House. With 208 members in the House, whatever affects members of the PDP will be felt by all of us”, he said.

    Mohammed urged  the PDP to urgently resolve the crisis in order to avoid a situation where it will slide into the minority when  57 members of the New PDP join ranks with the APC which has 137 members.

  • PDP crisis hits Jonathan’s home

    The Biblical refrain that a prophet is known save in his own place takes a resonance in the ongoing crisis of identity in the Peoples Democratic Party. The initial anxiety in the ruling party rose in the seven states where the governors inspired fissures and a turbulent schism. Analysts had viewed this as a geo-political statement depriving the president of a playground in key parts of the North as well as in Rivers State, a pivotal Niger Delta hot spot, where Governor Rotimi Amaechi has manifested an independence of spirit.

    This week the crisis came home to roost, literally, in Bayelsa State, which should ordinarily stand as a fortress for Jonathan. Loyalists to former governor Timipre Sylva stirred some rumpus when President Goodluck Jonathan rallied his supporters to a meeting with a view to solidifying his hold on the state. Some of Sylva’s loyalists ran a full page advertisement in some newspapers pillorying the high-handedness of the president.

    They were victims of the Jonathan dispensation in Bayelsa State, when the president manipulated the machinery of state and the party to disenfranchise Sylva’s supporters, imposed a candidate in Seriake Dickson in whom Jonathan was well-pleased, and set up an aggressive military machine for a kangaroo election. The police, army, air force and navy, in a proverbial use of a sledge hammer on a fly, imposed a governor. Before that, President Jonathan lied he knew nothing about it before he confessed that he knew everything about it in a shameless political rally.

    “Let the old PDP of impunity and injustice pass away,” proclaimed the advertisement, “and a new dawn break over Nigeria with the new authentic PDP. Nigeria has never been more divided. The Niger Delta has never been more divided. Bayelsa State has never been more divided. The new authentic PDP is our only hope. Let’s keep promises! That’s what Ijaws are known for.”

    The president, in trying to put his party in order, must develop charity, which has not begun at home.

  • PDP Crises: IBB, Ahmadu Ali in secret meeting at Presidential Villa

    To resolve the crises in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), some elders of the party including former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida and former PDP Chairman, Ahmadu Ali yesterday met secretly with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa.
    The party broke up on August 31st when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven state governors left the Mini Convention of the party to form the ‘New PDP’
    It could not be confirmed yesterday whether former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had been involved in the past mediating meetings, was at the meeting held at House 7 in the State House yesterday afternoon.
    Journalists were not allowed to get close to the venue of the meeting which lasted for about one hour. There was no press briefing or statement issued at the end.
    The meeting, according to a reliable source who does not want his name in prints, was a preparatory meeting towards the scheduled meeting in the night with the aggrieved members.
    Even as it was not clear if any governor attended the meeting yesterday afternoon, some state governors were spotted at the Presidential villa before the meeting including the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) and Gabriel Suswam (Benue).
  • Factional state chairmen, others shun Tukur’s meeting

    Factional state chairmen, others shun Tukur’s meeting

    The seven states whose governors joined the Abubakar Baraje-led breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday stayed away from the meeting convened by PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    Besides the seven, ten others did not attend the meeting, where those present pledged their loyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan and the party’s national chairman.

    States whose chairmen did not show up at the meeting were: Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Niger and Kwara. Also, factional chairmen loyal to Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) were also absent.

    Tukur told the gathering of state chairmen that only the PDP can guarantee Nigeria’s unity and that of the West African sub-region. He added that there is hope for the nation under the Jonathan’s administration.

    The chairman said no other party has a national spread like the PDP, adding that the chairmen were the managers of the party at the state level.

    Tukur enjoined them to defend the interests of the PDP at all times, stressing that “it is possible to have dissidents and it is also possible to have good men to defend what the party stands for.”

    He stated further: “Today, no party in Nigeria has the spread like PDP. That means the people accept our party and that means it is a big responsibility; hence the people believe there must be equity and justice.

    “I am analogue, while you are digital. I will give you wisdom to tackle tomorrow. We believe that every member of the party has the right to express himself. Majority will always have their way, while minority will have their say.”

    In a communiqué issued by the state chairmen and signed by their leader, Mr. Emmanuel Agbo (Benue) and Makanjuola Ogundipe (Ekiti) they declared support for President Jonathan and Tukur.

    The communique reads: “We believe in the structure of this party, we do not intend to have disunited and fragmented party at the state and local level.

    “We are prepared to carry out the resolution of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and (NWC) of the party, while we shall ensure discipline and membership drive.”

     

     

  • PDP will resolve its internal disagreements – Jonathan

    PDP will resolve its internal disagreements – Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan has assured Nigerians that the current political impasse in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will soon become history as efforts are being intensified by elders to resolve it.

    Jonathan gave the assurance at a post convention dinner of the party held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential villa on Monday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and some governors staged a walkout at the Special PDP Convention held on August 31 in Abuja.

    They later announced the formation of a new PDP during a news conference at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

    Jonathan, however, described the walkout of the aggrieved PDP members as a ‘’minor disagreement.”

    “Everybody knows what happened on Saturday. In families we disagree. These are minor disagreements that can be resolved.’’

    He, therefore, called on the dissenting party members to embrace dialogue as ‘’no other party can face PDP.”

    According to him, without PDP, there will be no democracy in Nigeria.

    ‘’The party is intact and will remain intact. We will continue to show leadership and do everything possible to ensure that the party grows stronger.

    “We will do our best to keep PDP one and Nigeria one,” he said.

    The Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT), PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, called on those interested in contesting for elective posts in 2015 general elections to declare their intention.

    He said the call had become necessary in view of the need for the party apparatus to prepare adequately for the exercise.

    “We must be ready for the journey. By the end of September we would not be able to tell anybody that the time is not right; we will be able to tell them where we are going through.

    ‘’It is good that we tell our people where we are going and how the journey will be like,” he said.

     

  • PDP crisis: Tukur, Baraje adamant at parley with Obasanjo, IBB, Anenih, Ahmadu Ali

    PDP crisis: Tukur, Baraje adamant at parley with Obasanjo, IBB, Anenih, Ahmadu Ali

    The PDP elders’ peace initiative to save the ruling party from going under went on in Abuja yesterday regardless of threats and intimidation from the Presidency to stall it.

    The two sides in the dispute were unyielding in their demands tabled before former President Olusegun Obasanjo; ex-military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida; Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih; and former national chairmen of the party – Dr. Ahmadu Ali and Chief Barnabas Gemade.

    The factional national chairmen, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Alhaji Kawu Baraje, insisted on having it their way at separate sessions with the party elders, hours after President Goodluck Jonathan attempted to pull the plug on the peace talks.

    Sources said the Tukur faction explained how its National Working Committee has been doing its best to carry all PDP members along.

    Tukur claimed that he took office with a reconciliation mission and has never derailed.

    A top source said: “The faction took exception to the factionalization of the PDP by Baraje and seven governors in spite of many interventions in the last two months by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “To move forward, Bamanga asked the elders to prevail on Baraje and the rest to desist from parading themselves as the parallel PDP National Working Committee; subject themselves to the constitution of PDP; and allow the party leadership to resolve all issues raised by the governors.

    Another source said: “The Baraje faction insisted on its four-point demand bordering on the removal of Tukur, the need for Jonathan to forget seeking re-election in 2015, the resolution of the Nigeria Governors Forum crisis and the stoppage of harassment of governors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    “The Baraje group said its demands were not negotiable although the elders only took note of their complaints.

    “It is left to the elders to harmonize these issues tabled before them and find solutions.”

    Continuing, the source said: “So far, the elders have not apportioned blame, but they allowed each group to lay its cards on the table. I think there is progress somehow in view of the fact that many party leaders had assumed that the peace talks would not take place.”

    President Jonathan had reportedly told party elders to shun the meeting on the strength of intelligence report that Obasanjo was behind the crises which got to a head last Saturday after Baraje,former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven governors walked out of the party’s Special Convention in Abuja and proceeded to form a parallel national executive committee.

    President Jonathan himself was in Kenya on a state visit yesterday when the peace meeting got underway at the Kaduna Hall on Floor 01 of Transcorp Hilton Hotel,Abuja.

    Two members of the peace panel, ex-Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and the pioneer National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Solomon Lar, were absent.

    They were said to be abroad and could not make it to the closed-door session.

    To avoid physical confrontation by the antagonisits, the peace team met separately with the two factions for more than two hours.

    The session with the factions in the PDP ended at about 2.43pm.

    Those at the meeting from the Bamanga Tukur faction were Tukur; some NWC members, Governors Liyel Imoke, Ibrahim Shema, Godswill Akpabio, Isa Yuguda, Emmanuel Uduagan, Seriake Dickson, Jonah Jang, Theodore Orji and Idris Wada, while the other faction was represented by Baraje; the Deputy National Chairman, Sam Jaja; ex-Governor Bukola Saraki; factional National Secretary of the PDP, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; Governors Rotimi Amaechi; Sule Lamido and Aliyu Wammako.

    Obasanjo spoke to reporters briefly at the end of the meeting and said the elders’ intervention was necessary to save the PDP from brinkmanship.

    He said: “You have seen five of us as select elders of the party. We have taken it upon ourselves to prevent the worst from happening to our dear party.

    ”Two of our members are abroad and could not join us. They are Solomon Lar and Alex Ekwueme, and we are carrying them along.

    “Whatever the reports we are making, suffice it to say that it is family dispute within the PDP, which we want to stem the tide of going to the brink.

    “And I want to say that we have met with the two sides of the family. We have listened to them, and, of course, we are going to put our heads together and go on from there.”

    A member of the Nigerian Senators’ Forum, Chief Yisa Braimoh, at a separate forum yesterday warned Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, to desist from attacking Chief Anenih and his efforts at resolving the crisis rocking the party.

    Clark as well as a one-time Senate President, Senator Ameh Ebute; former Minister of Police Affairs, General David Jemibewon; and former Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), General Ibrahim Haruna had under the aegis of the Congress for Equality attacked Anenih for admitting that some of “the aggrieved PDP governors had genuine grievances.”

    They also faulted Anenih for saying that the grievances of the G-7 governors should be addressed to enable the party come out stronger from the “minor” crisis.

    They had declared in a statement at the end of their meeting in Abuja on Thursday that: “Chief Tony Anenih should distance himself from the demands of these so-called ‘aggrieved governors’ and join Tukur to work for the party in truth and spirit.”

    But Senator Braimoh, who represented Edo North Senatorial District from 2007 to 2011 on the PDP platform, yesterday cautioned Clark and others.

    He said: “While the position taken by Chief Tony Anenih as Chairman of the BoT of the PDP is statesmanlike and helpful to the process of finding solutions to the crisis, the attitude of Chief Edwin Clark and his friends in the Congress for Equality only helps to worsen the crisis. They should, therefore, emulate Chief Anenih.

    “It is sardonic that while elders of the PDP should spare no effort to put an end to the lingering crisis threatening our party, Chief Clark and his friends who should be voices of moderation are the ones stoking the fire and choosing to be part of the problem rather than the solution. It is, indeed, pathetically sad that they are unconscionably widening the gulf between contending parties.

    “They should have known, if they were not being mischievous, that as chairman of the Board of Trustees, Chief Anenih, is expected to play the role of an impartial arbiter, which does not admit of dissembling. This is what he has appropriately done in the circumstance. His attitude does not detract from his commitment to the unity of the party and the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.”

  • PDP crisis: Women leaders to meet Baraje faction

    PDP crisis: Women leaders to meet Baraje faction

    Top women members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are to meet the Kawu Baraje faction as part of the plan to resolve the leadership crisis rocking the party.

    The Conference of PDP Female Politicians, which is made up of former female legislators, political activists and other stalwarts from all over the country, has already met with the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Annenih; the embattled factional Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

    Its spokesperson and former deputy governor of Ekiti State, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, said the first round of meetings were indicative of the desire of the group to ensure peace in the party.

    But she declined to give details of the discussions the women held with the BOT Chairman.

    “We intend to keep these in view as we continue with the peace initiatives,” she said.

    Hon. Mercy Almona-Isei, another member of the group, said the meeting with Alhaji Tukur was frank and meaningful.

    Chairman of the group, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, confirmed that a delegation met with Gov. Amaechi for three hours, saying: “Having heard from Governor Amaechi, there is a need for us to meet with other persons involved in this dispute.

    “The Conference of PDP Female politicians will not be deterred from making every effort to restore the peace and unity of the PDP.

    “We cannot afford to stand by and watch over the destruction of a party that has given Nigerian women the greatest opportunity of expression in the political history of Nigeria.”

  • Baraje’s faction threatens Tukur with jail

    Baraje’s faction threatens Tukur with jail

     …Says ‘his time is up’

    The Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday said the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, should realize that “his time is up.”

    It said Tukur’s reign of impunity and lawlessness has ended.

    The faction also said it has mandated its lawyers to press contempt charges against the PDP chairman.

    Also, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, has warned warring factions in the party against provocative statements.

    The Baraje faction, which made its position known in a statement issued by its National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said Tukur threats pointed to “not just impunity but also lawlessness and crass ignorance of the tenets of the law and democratic ethos.”

    It faulted the press conference addressed by Tukur in Abuja on Wednesday where he threatened to sack members of the National Assembly who have declared support for the Baraje faction and arrest its officers.

    The statement said: “We have asked our lawyers to press contempt charges against Tukur because his statement was made in clear contempt of the orders of Lagos High Court which three days ago asked both sides to maintain the status quo. We will ask the court to commit him to jail for his disdain for the law and the judicial system.

    “We have always been saying it that Tukur represents everything that must not be seen in a democratic organization. His statement demonstrates not just impunity but also lawlessness and crass ignorance of the tenets of the law and democratic ethos.

    “Tukur displayed his disdain for law and order with his threat to order the arrest of law abiding persons in a democracy.

    “We ask what powers he has under our laws to make that statement and what gave him the impression that Nigeria has become a police state where impunity reigns and citizens can be arrested at the whim of any power drunk Tzar.

    “Fortunately, our country is a democracy under the rule of law and not under the rule of man. The police and our other security agencies cannot be used to further such agenda as being nurtured in the dictatorial mind of Tukur.