Tag: PDP crisis

There were strong indications last night that President Goodluck Jonathan may call the bluff of the seven aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Dr. Jonathan, who reportedly got angry at a meeting with PDP governors loyal to him on Tuesday night, asked them not to lose sleep over the party’s crisis.

It was also learnt that some forces in the Presidency are viewing with suspicion the peace moves initiated by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo because the aggrieved governors are seen as his “die-hard” loyalists.

The peace meeting called by the ex-President is scheduled for tomorrow in Abuja.

The President is said to have rejected Obasanjo’s peace moves.

A source, who spoke with our correspondent last night, said: “The President, after going through some security reports on the crisis, got angry and told the governors, ‘we will not lose sleep. Those who ignited the fire should go and quench it’.

“It is obvious that the Presidency is already closing in on those pulling the strings to divide the PDP ahead of the 2015 poll.

“I think the Presidency may damn the consequences. The next few weeks might be for dirty politics. There is a likelihood of tit-for-tat politics.”

At the meeting were Governors Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Ramalan Yero (Kaduna); Gabriel Suswam (Benue); Theodore Orji (Abia); Liyel Imoke (Cross River); Henry Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa); Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe); Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Idris Wada (Kogi) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi).

Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs Ahmed Gulak and Deputy National Chairman of PDP Uche Secondus were also there.

A close aide to the president faulted Obasanjo’s intervention in the crisis.

According to the aide, “What is happening in the PDP has nothing to do with the President; it is not his headache at all and he is not losing sleep over it.”

The President believes that those who ignited the crisis should also look for ways to put it off. And from security reports, former President Olusegun Obasanjo is behind it; he cannot start a crisis and now pretend to be finding a solution to it.

“It is good that the current happenings are unfolding at this time; we now know those who are doing what, those who have been hiding their faces while creating problems – including security crises for the government. The government is studying the situation and will respond at the appropriate time.”

Obasanjo and the governors are battling to prevent President Jonathan from contesting election in 2015, the aide alleged, adding: “But the President will contest 2015 election and his achievements will speak for him.

“Those who are calling for revolution should better start preparing for it because President Jonathan will contest the election; Nigerians will decide his fate and not Obasanjo and the six or seven governors. Those calling for war should start preparing now,” he said.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Bamanga Tukur took the battle to his opponents yesterday, vowing to ensure that governors are suspended.

National Assembly members who joined the Abubakar Baraje-led breakaway faction are to lose their seats, the chairman said.

Other PDP chieftains who joined the faction would be expelled from the ruling party, he said.

But, Baraje replied Tukur, saying he is unfit for his position.

At a press conference he addressed at the party’s secretariat, Tukur described leaders of the breakaway faction as impostors, saying security agencies have been detailed to treat them as such.

He said: “Consequently, we shall ensure that any person who is not duly elected into any leadership position in our great party and has not been duly assigned any role but goes ahead to arrogate such to himself will be made to face the full wrath of the law.

“Similarly, all persons elected on the platform of our great party at all levels who identify with these enemies of the oneness and greatness of our party shall have their seats declared vacant as required by law.

“We shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that such persons and indeed any other individual who attempts to subvert the leadership of the PDP shall reap in full, the consequences of such actions”.

Stating that the PDP has no faction, Tukur said there was no reason whatsoever for such a claim under any guise.

“The PDP has only one duly elected National Executive Committee (NEC) under my chairmanship. I wish, therefore, to state with all emphasis that any group of persons parading themselves as leaders of NEC or any other organ of our party are impostors and I urge all Nigerians, especially the security agencies and other institutions of democracy, to regard them as such.

“Let me state categorically that the PDP as the sole custodian of the sacred mandate of over 160 million Nigerians and which in the last 14 years has lifted high the banner of democracy will not fold its arms while some undemocratic and unpatriotic elements destroy our common destiny by causing divisions and confusion among the people.”

“There is only one lawfully recognised PDP and I am firmly in charge,” Tukur declared.

According to Tukur, the PDP has adequate mechanism for internal conflict resolution and advised aggrieved party members to exploit such mechanism.

In his reaction, Baraje, who spoke with our correspondent, said: “With what he said, it shows that Tukur is unfit, incapable and totalitarian. The earlier they take him out, the better for Nigeria and PDP. As far as we are concerned, there is no person or thing like Bamanga Tukur again in PDP.

“By saying that they want to use the security agencies to deal with us, Tukur has also confirmed the level of impunity, lawlessness, recklessness and ignorance in PDP.

“With his declaration, it means the police have become puppets in the hands of his group. Let them come and deal with us; we are waiting for them.

On the status of the New PDP, Baraje said “it is legal; there is no cause for alarm.”

He added: “As far as we are concerned, the court has recognised us and directed that the status quo be maintained. His press conference is subjudice to the order of the court. Let them continue to make more blunders.”

Regarding plans to declare the seats of 22 Senators and 57 members of the House of Representatives vacant, Baraje said: “It shows that Tukur does not know anything about the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“You can see that all our complaints against Tukur are genuine. He is a symbol of intolerance, recklessness, politics of exclusion and over and above all, ignorance.

“How can a national chairman of a party say that he would declare the seats of lawmakers vacant? Does he have the power? This is sheer ignorance.”

“To wake up and say he is going to recall people or declare their seats vacant showed he is ignorant. He is not fit to be called the national chairman of the PDP.”

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven governors elected on the platform of the PDP on Saturday, launched a breakaway faction of the party.

The seven Governors are: Rotimi Amaehi (Rivers); Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).

Baraje was named the chairman of the faction. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola was made secretary.

The former deputy chairman of the Tukur-led PDP, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, is the deputy chairman of the “new PDP”.

Members of the National Assembly have also been embracing the faction in their numbers.

Baraje said the group was forced to leave the Tukur-led PDP as a result of series of arbitrary actions and dangerous permutations by Tukur, with President Goodluck Jonathan’s backing.

He also listed arbitrary suspension of notable members of the party, adding that the PDP has lost focus.

Ijaw leader,Chief Edwin Clark, has told ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop sewing seeds of discord in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), retire to his Ota farm and keep quiet.

Eighty-six-year-old Chief Clark believes that Nigeria, the PDP have had enough of Chief Obasanjo’s troubles, adding that President Goodluck Jonathan can do without “open and deliberate interference” from him.

The Second Republic Senator and Federal Commissioner for Information in the Gowon military administration accused the former President of instigating Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to have a go at the Presidency in the 2015 elections, thereby precipitating the crisis that has now engulfed the ruling party.

He spoke in an interview with The Nation, details of which are published in this edition.

Chief Clark said Lamido, Amaechi and their counterparts from Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko),Adamawa (Murtala Nyako), Kano (Rabiu Kwankwaso) and Niger (Babangida Aliyu) were not behaving like disciplined party members and should be made to toe the party line or get kicked out.

Said he of Obasanjo: “He gives the impression that he wants to be involved in the reconciliation process of the party, particularly amongst the governors. But that is not true. If there is any problem today that Chief Obasanjo wants to participate in solving, it is the problem he created.

“ He was the one who said that he wanted Lamido the Governor of Jigawa State and Rotimi Amaechi the Governor of Rivers State to contest the 2015 election as presidential candidates. Even on this year’s Democracy Day on 29th May, when former heads of state and former presidents, including 87-year-old President Shehu Shagari, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Chief Ernest Shonikan, were with President Goodluck Jonathan, former President Obasanjo was still busy in Dutse, Jigawa State, eulogising Lamido, to the extent of crediting to the Jigawa State Government the beautiful road from Kano to Jigawa, which is a Federal Government road built by President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Nigeria is greater than everybody. In a situation where you have a Federal Government, the Constitution empowers the President to govern the country. You should allow the President to govern the country as he himself did, without open and deliberate interference from former heads of state.

“You can give advice quietly, but not to make derogatory statements about the government. For instance, sometime ago, he said in Switzerland that this administration does not have the courage to eradicate corruption in the country. You want to nominate everybody into the government of Mr. President? The man has respected you, given you due privilege to do what you want to do.”

Chief Clark cited the PDP crisis in Obasanjo’s geo-political zone of South West, saying: ”The problem of the party in the South West today is caused by him. Ogun State today has no functional PDP. The Ogun State governorship would not have gone to ACN if he had not forced his own candidate on the people, and if he had not disagreed with the former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olugbenga Daniel.

“Ogun State today has two important ministers: the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Agriculture. These are very key ministries. So, why should the PDP not be strong in Ogun State?

“The Party is scattered in the South West because of him. We lost all the states in the South West in the last election because people feel that when you work for a party, you must gain something. The dividends of democracy must spread round.

“So, all I am saying is that for him creating these problems and belatedly jumping into the band wagon of reconciliation without being invited by the party because new zonal congress has to be held in the (South) West, and because he will like to have his favoured candidate to win the gubernatorial election in Anambra State, and also because he has now seen that the party has not fallen apart after his resignation from the chairmanship of the party’s Board of Trustees, is improper.

“It must be remembered that President Olusegun Obasanjo, before leaving office, amended the PDP Constitution whereby only a former president could become the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party. He thought that with this amendment, he would automatically become the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, which would enable him to influence the Federal Government from (his) Ota farm as published in El-Rufai’s book, The Accidental Public Servant.

“By this amendment, he pushed Chief Tony Anenih out unceremoniously. Unfortunately, he did not realise what he bargained for. Corruption, as epitomised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s modus operandi, is one of the problems plaguing this country today.

“As far as I am concerned, the former President of this country should conduct himself as a father. He should desist from making statements that will bring tension in the country. He should be in a position where people take advice from him; not for him to be going from place to place giving the impression that all is not well with this country, particularly when he visits some governors whom he perceives as having some misunderstanding with the Presidency.

“There is time available to offer service to your country. There is time to retire with dignity and remain at home. So, one of the areas I will like to mention/advise our most respected former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is that as I mentioned earlier, he should stay at home. Those who want to consult with him will go to him. He should not debase the office of a former President of the country or create controversies.”

On the ‘errant’ governors,Chief Clark said the PDP must “be firm, resolute and discipline must be enforced. Nobody is above the law. Any errant member of the Party must be brought to book.”

He added: “Everybody is ambitious; they want to be this or that. So, there is no law and order. There is no respect for the party. Nobody controls them. Every one of them makes speeches. There must be discipline.

“I agree that the problems of PDP are partly caused by the Governor’s Forum, where the governors want to dictate to the party leaders. They want to be the people to nominate and accredit members to the congresses and conventions of the party. They want to nominate who should be a minister from their states. They want to nominate board members.

“In doing that, there arises a crack between the party and the governors. Today, we have sounded a warning that the Governor’s Forum is unconstitutional. They have defied the Constitution of Nigeria with impunity, and they have no regard for party’s supremacy.”

He said Amaechi, in particular, has no regard for the PDP.

His words: “Rotimi Amaechi has become supreme. He no longer has regard for his party. That’s indiscipline. Either he gets out of the party or he toes the party line. That arrogance must be stopped and his open romance with the opposition must also stop. His financial contribution to the opposition must also stop.”

He said Governors Lamido, Aliyu, Wamako, Kwankwaso and Nyako “are trying to make this country ungovernable for Mr. President, in the name of ‘gang of five.’ I think if they are loyal party members and they are dissatisfied with the party’s administration, their consultation should be limited to the party hierarchy and, of course, there is a Party Reconciliation Committee headed by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson.

“They are not faithful to the party and they have their secret agenda. It is amazing to see these five governors parading themselves as saints when, in fact, most of them breach the party’s constitution to be installed as governors by the former President in 2007. Most of them were not elected in the primaries. “Curiously, this ‘gang of 5’ governors should focus their attention on the security crisis facing their states… They do not even care for the welfare of the victims of Boko Haram in their states. Instead of staying in their states, they are moving from state to state causing confusion and tension. I think they should be ashamed of themselves for a mission unaccomplished. They should suspend them, discipline them, so that they are not allowed to disturb the party. Nobody is greater than the party. Even the President is not.”

•See full interview on pages 18-20

A fresh crisis is looming between the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party over plans to conduct a fresh election in the South-West into the office of the PDP National Secretary.

The proposed election will lead to the replacement of the sacked National Secretary of the party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Oyinlola was removed after a judgment delivered by Justice Abdu Kafarati of the Federal High Court Abuja on January 11, 2013.

Tukur had been quoted as saying: “The caretaker committee currently in place (in the South-West zone) will hold a fresh congress where a new secretary will be elected. It is a process and I can assure you that the office is not being taken away from the zone.”

Investigation, however, revealed that members of the NWC were shocked that Tukur made such a pronouncement in spite of the ongoing cases against the party at the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.

A top NWC member said: “Some of us were shocked to read about the pronouncement of the National Chairman because we have not taken a decision to declare Oyinlola’s seat permanently vacant because there are many pending cases in court.

“Some of us will not be against any action that will be subjudice against the court process.

“I do not think we can be talking of reconciliation and at the same time be taking steps that are capable of complicating the crisis at hand.”

Another source in the NWC said: “This election is not a collective decision of the NWC. This is why our members have been calling for a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) to resolve this kind of challenge.

“I think the National Leader of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan, and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Tony Anenih, need to intervene and stop this plan to conduct election into the office of the National Secretary.

“And if you look at the constitution, it is the constitutional responsibility of the National Convention to elect National Secretary and not the Zonal Congress.

“I am also aware that there is a motion before the Federal High Court, Abuja where Oyinlola is seeking seven reliefs.”

In a Motion on Notice filed at the Federal High Court, Oyinlola sought seven reliefs, including an order to restrain the PDP from appointing a new National Secretary pending the determination of his appeal.

The reliefs are as follows:

“An order of stay of execution of the judgment delivered on the 11th day of January 2013 by this Honourable Court in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/504/2012 pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed against it by the 1st Defendant/Applicant/Appellant.

“An order of injunction restraining the respondents by themselves, agents, servants, privies or otherwise from taking any step or further steps whatsoever to remove the applicant as the National Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pending the determination of the appeal filed and now pending in the Court of Appeal.

“An order of injunction restraining any member of PDP from assuming or further assuming the office of the National Secretary of PDP.

“An order of injunction restraining any member of the PDP from performing or further performing the functions of the National Secretary of the party pending the determination of the appeal filed and pending in the Court of Appeal.

“An order of injunction restraining the PDP from convening any Zonal Congress or National Congress of the party with a view to electing or selecting the National Secretary of the PDP pending the determination of the appeal filed and pending in the Court of Appeal.

“An order of injunction restraining the PDP from rectifying the records of the applicant/appellant by deleting name of the 1st defendant as the National Secretary of the 3rd respondent and replacing it with any other name.”

Also, the Osun Central chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, of acting against the constitution of the party.

As at press time, it was learnt that Oyinlola and some concerned members of the party might table the issue before the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Tony Anenih.

A party source added: “Oyinlola and other leaders from the South –West are seeking the intervention of Anenih and the BOT. Things are getting out of hands in the party. No one is happy at all.”

The Chairman of PDP in Osun Central Senatorial District, Rev. Bunmi Jenyo, yesterday said: “Alhaji Tukur himself knows that he and Prince Oyinlola as national officers of the party were products of the national convention.

“No zonal congress can elect a national officer of the party. If it is true he actually made that statement, I am sorry to say, he would be seen as deliberately working to undermine the party and subverting its constitution.

“The constitution of our party is very clear on how to elect a national officer of the PDP. The constitution says clearly that the entire country shall be the constituency of any aspirant to the party’s national offices. Are we to assume that our national chairman is unaware of the contents of our party on how he and other national officers were elected?

“Alhaji Tukur himself is a beneficiary of that provision of our constitution. When the North-East zone met before the last convention and said it had elected Babayo Shehu as its candidate for the national chairmanship, the party said no, that no zone had that power. If those at the party’s helm of affairs at that time had reasoned and acted as Tukur does now, he would not be our national chairman today. I strongly believe he was misquoted.

“The removal of Oyinlola is already being contested by him at the appeal court where he is arguing that he was elected by the national convention of the party and not at the zonal congress as held by a Federal High Court which ordered his removal.”

Meanwhile, Oyinlola has launched another attack against the leadership of the party as part of steps to regain his seat.

He has written a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. J.K. Gadzama, protesting alleged illegal advice he gave to the PDP, which led to his removal from office.

He also forwarded the protest letter to the Nigeria Bar Association, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alooma Mukhtar, for the records.

He said Gadzama, who has been a long-time counsel to PDP, allegedly misled the party to ignore the ruling of a Court of Appeal to remove him from office.

He also queried why Gadzama has continued to represent him at the Court of Appeal, contrary to his wish.

In the letter, Ref.OO/34/34 and dated 26th March, 2013, Oyinlola insisted that Gadzama does not have his mandate to withdraw his case before the Court of Appeal.

He accused the counsel of allegedly violating the PDP constitution in connivance with Tukur.

The letter reads in part: “It sounds almost incredible that you could go ahead to advise the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to willfully disregard the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which granted a stay of execution on the matter; but obey the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which delivered a contentious judgment that invalidated my election as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party.

“This is against all known established rules and regulations which are capable of lowering the estimation of the Nigerian Bar in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society all over the world. It also has the potential of creating credibility problems, not only for the Nigerian Judiciary, but also for the PDP and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“Furthermore, it is interesting to note that you have in your correspondence cited above quoted profusely from the PDP constitution, the powers and functions of the National Chairman of the Party with intent to justify your curious position.

“I note, however, that out of the ordinary, you have failed to take cognizance of Chapter 1(7)1d which highlights the fact that PDP shall ‘’promote self-respect, self-reliance and human dignity.

“Curiously, you have turned a blind eye to the provisions of the same constitution, which prescribes the mode of elections of officers of the PDP, for you to be able to offer an untainted professional advice to the party.

“Rather, I am made to believe that you completely hijacked the functions of the National Legal Adviser of the PDP for the purpose of circumventing court rulings and proceedings.”

The embattled former governor insisted that he was legally elected as the National Secretary of PDP at the National Convention of the party, and not the South-West Zonal Congress.

The letter added: “For the avoidance of doubt, and I believe that you are very well aware, given your membership of the PDP, that all national officers of the party emerged at the national convention held on March 24, 2012.

“I wish to categorically point out that the South-West Zonal Congress of March 21, 2012, on which the learned judge rested his pronouncement did not put forward Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the adopted candidate of the zone for the position of the National Secretary.

“I applied like other interested candidates and was certified eligible to contest for election into the position of National Secretary by the National Headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party. This position is sacrosanct and ordinarily ought to earn me the support of the PDP since I was never called to question over actions taken on the Ogun State PDP crises.

“Besides, I hold the view that PDP is vicariously liable for all actions I took while in office as the National Secretary. Not once did I take any unilateral decision in line with my preference for due process in the administration of the PDP national headquarters.

“To refresh your memory and to point out the deliberate violation of the PDP constitution which you have actively encouraged in connivance with Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, let me recall that two (2) suits (FHC/L/CS/347/2012 of 27th April, 2012 and FHC/CS/282/2012) filed by the Plaintiffs at the Federal High Court had nullified the South-west Zonal Congress; from which the Plaintiffs erroneously claimed the PDP National Secretary emerged.

“However, convinced that the suits were an abuse of court process, the PDP challenged the decision of the Federal High Court at the Court of Appeal. The ruling of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division in CA/35/2 delivered on June 25, 2012, declared that the Learned Trial Judge at the Federal High Court erred in Law by admitting the Plaintiffs averments and further granted a Stay of Execution.

“Satisfied that the Defendants (including my humble self) had merit in our averments, the Court of Appeal, Lagos Judicial Division, in its ruling delivered on the 25th June, 2012, granted us a Stay of all Proceedings predicated on Suit No: FHC/L/CS/1241/11. In normal situations, the ruling of the Federal Court of Appeal must take precedence over that of a Federal High Court. I need not point out the implication of this development to you.

“I attach herewith, for purpose of clarity and compliance with my request, my earlier letter to you dated 7th March, 2013 and your Frank Egboh’s letter to me dated Tuesday, March 19, 2013; which I am sure he must have forwarded to you as your employee/partner; and for whose actions you are vicariously liable.

“Please permit me to inform you, out of expediency, that I am forwarding copies of these letters to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloma Mukhtar (GCON), who is also the Chairman of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee; the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, as well as the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar, for purposes of their record, and possible further necessary action.

“Please note that if either your good self or your firm persists in imposing yourself as my lawyer without my consent, with the apparent immoral and mischievous intention of terminating my appeal and curtailing my constitutional right to appeal, I will immediately seek redress from the appropriate institutions saddled with the responsibility of protecting our noble and revered profession.”

A fresh revolt is brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

The masterminds are some governors and state chairmen of the party opposed to his style of leadership.

Their grouse, according to party sources, is alleged drift by the leadership.

They are poised to defy Tukur and convene a meeting of the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC), for the first time since July 2012.

They are said to have commenced collecting signatures of two-thirds of NEC members which is the minimum required for such purpose.

The governors and NEC members are scheduled to meet in Abuja this week to take a decision on handing Tukur a seven-day notice to summon the NEC for a meeting, failing which they will invoke the PDP Constitution to do so.

Tukur is stalling the meeting in view of the festering crisis in the party.

It was learnt that he is bidding for time to enable his team be able to reconcile issues and aggrieved leaders of the party, including the G-84 members.

Although Vice-President Namadi Sambo met with G-84 members on Thursday night, some of them and some governors are still unhappy with the situation of things in the party.

According to sources, the NEC members are unhappy that while Tukur is preaching peace in one breath, he is stoking fire in another by allegedly jeopardising the interest of the party in the South-West ahead of the 2015 elections.

Apart from the pending NEC meeting, other unresolved issues are the Adamawa crisis; alleged plot to whittle down the influence of the governors on the party; the sack of the National Secretary of the party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; removal of loyalists of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo from the National Working Committee(NWC); the imposition of officers on the South-West Zonal chapter of the party; and arbitrary use of power including putting offices of those with legal issues under lock and key when court process is subsisting.

One source said: “A flurry of activities involving stakeholders of the party were held in Abuja during the week at which strategies were mapped out by the Tukur camp to continue with its attempts to seize the soul of the PDP while other stakeholders including state governors also met to appraise the situation and steps to be taken to rescue the PDP from destruction on account of the very dangerous steps taken so far by Tukur and which have pushed the party to precipice.

“State PDP chairmen, who also met in Abuja during the week are even more bitter about Tukur’s style of administering the party; are “fully charged’’ and ready to move against the national chairman of the party, who is believed to be acting on the basis of alleged support of the Presidency.

“There are plans to invoke the relevant provisions of the PDP constitution to convene the National Executive meeting of the PDP which gives two-thirds of members the right to issue notice of meeting.

“Members want to give the Presidency a few more days to deal more decisively with the problems created by Tukur after which the stakeholders will move to return PDP along the path of sanity.

“One of the grievances of key stakeholders of the party is Tukur’s alleged intransigence and decision to run the party’s affairs like the African Business Roundtable or Bamanga Tukur Organisation.

“Some of the stakeholders said the national chairman has continued to violate several provisions of PDP Constitution including Article 6.2 which stipulates that “The policies and programmes of the party shall be determined by its membership and the leadership shall be accountable to the Party’’.

“The last National Executive Committee meeting of the party was held in July 2012.

“I think Tukur is deliberately running PDP like a fiefdom and he knows that his actions and inactions could be subjected to scrutiny by PDP NEC.”

Another leader of the party said: “The next few weeks in the party will be interesting. PDP belongs to all of us and we will not allow Tukur to destroy the party for selfish reasons.

“If he claims the NWC stabbed him in the back by reversing the Adamawa issue does Tukur know that all the NWC requires to take actions in the interest of the PDP is two-thirds majority? He doesn’t have to be present at all meetings for decisions to be reached.

“Even if President Jonathan travels, Vice-President Namadi Sambo presides and decisions are binding on Nigerians. It is simply time for Tukur to bow out honourably or he will be impeached with ignominy as he continues to live in delusion that he is leading a political party.”

The source also spoke on alleged plan to clip the wings of PDP governors, saying: “The battle between the national chairman and PDP state governors commenced shortly before Tukur’s emergence. The governors of the North-East states rejected Tukur at the Zonal Congress of the PDP held in Bauchi. Tukur scored only two votes while the former acting National Secretary, Musa Babayo won the election.

“However, some state governors led by Governor Rotimi Amaechi supported President Goodluck Jonathan to install Bamanga Tukur at the National Convention which held on March 24, 2012.

“We are suspecting that the national chairman came with a pre-conceived plan to make it impossible for the governors to have a firm grip of the party. He started putting his act together immediately he came into office to railroad the National Working Committee into approving his actions and policies. Most of these policies were drawn by his lackeys.

“One of the advisers of Tukur was said to be responsible for issuing unsigned press statements at the PDP national secretariat when the National Publicity Secretary travelled abroad recently. It is absurd.

“The national chairman has preference for taking decisions affecting the PDP after consultations with about 12 special advisers he appointed and who are believed to have formed the parallel National Working Committee.

“This is viewed by members of the PDP National Working Committee as usurpation of their constitutional functions.

“For instance, one of the advisers, Chief Ishola Filani, was on Friday named the chairman of the South-West zonal Caretaker Committee of the PDP. Some other political aides engaged by Tukur from outside are believed to be angling for positions of state governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives.”

A political career-threatening plot is building up against Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State ahead of the 2015 presidential race.

At least two of his counterparts in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some ministers are co-ordinating the plot aimed at checking what a party source yesterday called his “excesses and political rascality.”

The governor is widely believed to have been pencilled down as the running mate to Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State in the 2015 race.

Amaechi and the Minister of the Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, were recently locked in a dirty war of words over the governor’s perceived ambition and the threat it portends for the second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Orubebe lashed out at Amaechi for allegedly spending the resources of the people of Rivers State on extraneous things and at the expense of those who elected him into office.

He also said that in the USA, once a serving President indicates his interest in seeking a second term in office, the whole of his party members throw their weight behind him.

The current plot, according to sources, was provoked by Amaechi’s alleged insubordination and disrespect for President Jonathan, cold war with the President on boundary demarcation and oil wells between Rivers and Bayelsa States, undermining the South-South agenda to retain the presidency in 2015, and instigating the Nigerian Governors Forum, of which he is Chairman, against the presidency on the Excess Crude Account and Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) which has not taken-off effectively, and sponsoring of crisis within the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP with a view to hijacking the party’s structure ahead of 2015.

Sources said a four-dimensional strategy has been put in place by some PDP hawks to deal with Amaechi including demystifying him through impeachment by the House of Assembly; sponsoring of revolt within the NGF; suspension of the governor from PDP for alleged anti-party activities; and outright distraction of his administration through internal crisis within the Rivers State Executive Council.

It was gathered that the recent verbal assault on state governors by the Ijaw leader , Chief Edwin Clark was ‘tactically’ directed at Amaechi.

A source, who spoke in confidence said: “The moves against Amaechi are real. The plotters are alleging that the governor has shown disrespect to the President four times including his open confrontation with the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan in Okrika.

“Another sin committed by Amaechi is alleged meddling in Bayelsa State politics in 2012 when he backed ex-Governor Timpreye Sylva against Governor Seriake Dickson, the anointed candidate of the President.

“While fence-mending was being done, he accused presidency of ceding some oil wells belonging to Rivers to Bayelsa State. Jonathan and his strategists felt bad that the image of the presidency was dragged into it.

“The President was personally touched by the press war such that he had to issue a statement absolving himself of any complicity in the Soku Oil wells. But Amaechi appeared to have had an upper hand in the media.”

Another source cited the recent crisis of confidence between the National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) as an issue why some forces in the party and the presidency are after Amaechi.

The source said: “As a matter of fact, the Deputy National Chairman of PDP, who was installed by Amaechi led the revolt against Tukur. That was seen as an affront against the President, who is the Leader of the party.”

But in a curious move, Tukur on Friday arrived in Port Harcourt for a visit during which he inspected projects executed by the Amaechi administration and commended him for his ‘performances.’

However, a party source said:”In spite of Tukur’s surprise visit to Rivers State, there is still a gulf between the presidency and Amaechi.

“Although the visit may be a rapprochement by Tukur, some loyalists of Jonathan are not ready to forgive Amaechi.

“In fact, the rumoured presidential aspiration of Governor Lamido-Amaechi ticket has made the presidency to be permanently suspicious of the Rivers State governor. They know Amaechi to be a long-distance runner.

“The face-off between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs over the East-West Road has earned Amaechi enemy’s tag. The President was allegedly portrayed as not doing anything for his people.”

It was gathered that anti-Amaechi forces are trying to woo those rated as politically powerful in Rivers State but abandoned or sidelined to fight the governor.

Speaking to reporters in Port Harcourt yesterday Tukur described Amaechi as the best for him, and hailed his achievements as excellent and fantastic.

Tukur inspected the new Kesley Harrison Hospital, the ultra- modern Maxillo-Facial Dental Hospital, the Port Harcourt-Owerri road, a 42 kilometre federal road done by the Amaechi administration, the new model primary and secondary schools, one of the over 120 new Health Centres, Songhai Farm in Tai, Afam Power project, Obiri-Ikwerre Interchange on the East –West road, and the over 38,000-seater new stadium being constructed in the Greater Port Harcourt city.

He said with the level of social and economic transformation in the state, Port Harcourt now ranks among developed cities of the world.

Speaking at a dinner party held in his honour at Government House on friday Tukur declared that, PDP will never lose to any party, if transformational leaders like Amaechi are boldly behind the party.

On his part, Amaechi assured Tukur that PDP Governors will support and remain loyal to the party at all times, urging him to always lead the party to victory.

“We assure you that Governors will support and remain loyal to the party, we need each other at such a challenging moment,” he said.