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Tag: PDP

  • Fresh crisis rocks Imo PDP over delegates’ list

    •Stakeholders threaten to work against party

    More crises seem to be rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State.

    Leaders and stakeholders in Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area are threatening to work against the party following the alleged manipulation of their delegates’ list.

    The protesting PDP leaders, accompanied by hundreds of party supporters, besieged the party’s state secretariat, demanding that the list be cancelled, alleging that it was single-handedly written by former House of Assembly Speaker and House of Representatives aspirant for Ohaji-Egbema-Oguta Federal Constituency Goodluck Opia.

    The over-500 aggrieved party chieftains, comprising past elective office holders, carried placards, reading: “Review Ohaji-Egbema list before it’s published”; “Imposition will make PDP lose in Ohaji-Egbema”; “PDP is heading for doom in Ohaji Egbema LGA”; “We reject the delegates’ list”, among others.

    Speaking for the aggrieved, former Executive Chairman of Ohaji Egbema council, Chief Celestine Uwakwe, said they were protesting the obvious manipulation of the list.

    But state Publicity Secretary Kizito Onuoha, who represented the state chairman, hailed the party leaders for making their grievances known.

    Onuoha assured that the party would ensure a free and fair process in the primaries.

     

     

  • PDP elders deplore calumny against Imoke

    PDP elders deplore calumny against Imoke

    Elders and stakeholders in Akwa Ibom State Southern Senatorial Zone of the Peolpes Democratic Party (PDP) have criticised former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke and Senate Leader Victor Ndom-Egba for alleged campaign of calumny against Governor Liyel Imoke.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, the party elders and stakeholders said they could no longer be indifferent to the alleged macabre dance and destructive campaign by Duke and Ndoma-Egba against Imoke.

    They took a swipe at what they called Duke’s and his cohorts’ “desperate and febrile attempt” to foist a governorship aspirant on the state.

    The stakeholders warned that not again would they allow the former governor and those on his side to have their way.

    Prof Nya Asuquo, who spoke on behalf of the group, said: “We, as senior citizens of Cross River State and bona fide members of the PDP in our rights, cannot be indifferent to the macabre dance and campaign of calumny and destruction orchestrated by …Duke, Ndom-Egba and their cohorts.

    “It saddens us that these people, who have benefited the most from the good people of Cross River State are now bent on dragging the state back to the Stone Age because they believe they must always have their way, no matter what happens to the rest of the populace.”

    Asuquo, who reading a statement by 22 elders of the party, added: “These people believe it is their birthright to give Cross River people the governor of their choice… They believe they should import a governorship candidate from Abuja and foist him on us, whether we like it or not.”

     

     

     

     

    “For the first time in the history of Cross River State and the PDP in the state, Imoke has put his foot down and insisted that democracy must be fully participatory and that all the citizens of the state must participate in the election of all candidates, all hell is being let loose by these people. We, the people of this state, say unequivocally that we shall not allow them. No! Not again.”

    The group added: “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones…

    “We, the people of Cross River State, hail Imoke and state party chairman, Ntufam John Okon, for the peaceful and transparent manner in which they conducted the ward delegates’ election on November 1. The moneybags have been put to shame and, for once, their money has not been able to help them.”

     

  • Old Ondo PDP members to meet Mark

    Old Ondo PDP members to meet Mark

    Old Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in Ondo State have set up a 12-man committee to meet with Senate President David Mark and PDP Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman Tony Anenih.

    This followed the failure of the faction led by Governor Olusegun Mimiko and the old PDP to agree on a sharing formula of party structures at a meeting with the president, vice president and other party leaders.

    The committee members, drawn from the three senatorial districts, are expected to table their resolutions from a meeting held on Sunday at Jimoh Ibrahim’s house at Igbotako, Okitipupa Local Government Area.

    The resolutions are nobody would tamper with the executive committee until March 2016 when its tenure will end and all aspirants who had been disqualified by the screening committee must be cleared.

    Some members of the committee include Femi Adekanmbi, Olu Agunloye, Benson Enikuomehin, Olusola Agbesua, Akin Akingbesote, and Femi Omosanya.

     

  • Rivers PDP gubernational imbroglio  

    SIR: The on-going controversy over who bears the PDP flag in the Rivers 2015 governorship election is getting to a disturbing level. An interesting angle to it, is Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s insistence that it would be unfair, unjust and even politically immoral for an Ikwerre to succeed him, an Ikwerre himself. Should this happen, he keeps singing like a song, it would be a recipe for disunity, inequity and injustice in a state that has enjoyed relative peace in the past few years? I am not an Amaechi fan, but I find this his reasoning resoundingly mature and acceptable to many Rivers people. He does not want Rivers State on fire after his regime.

    One does not need to look too far to observe that since the return of democratic rule in May 1999, Rivers State has been governed, back to back, by our brothers from the upland section of our state. Yet, there is a clear and natural divide in our state – upland and riverine areas. Governor Peter Odili, from 1999 to 2007, governed Rivers State. He is upland and during his swearing-in ceremony on May 30, 1999, he promised that the next governor, after him, would come from the riverine. He reneged and proposed his crony, Chibuike Amaechi, to vie for the number one position in the state. President Obasanjo who did not want Amaechi for a number of reasons, retaliated by withdrawing his support for Odili’s presidential, and later vice-presidential ambition. Out of panic, Odili substituted Amaechi with his (Amaechi) cousin, Celestine Omehia. Amaechi later got what he and Odili wanted through a Supreme Court ruling.

    Amaechi is due to hand over power by May 2015, and has sustained his insistence that for justice, fairness and peace, another Ikwerre should not succeed him. Sincere and average Ikwerre person agree with him. Based on the array of the 16 candidates who addressed a successful pro-zoning rally in Port Harcourt recently, it is clear that front runners, in the following order, Beks Dagogo-Jack, Dumo Lulu Briggs, Samson Ngeribara, among the lot, seem to be carrying popular acceptability among party stalwarts and membership.

    There are many questions to be asked. Are the party leadership at the national level of the PDP not reading the political temperature in Rivers State? Are they so distant that they are not getting the feeling that Nyesom Wike, though an asset to the party, cannot win if eventually imposed on members of the party? Can’t they feel the pulse from their Abuja enclave? Are the signals not clear enough to them by now, and what else are they waiting?

    Chief Wike’s inordinate ambition must be halted, not massaged by the national leadership of the party. He claims he rescued the party when Amaechi almost orphaned it, as it were, but that is not very correct. He along with other party stakeholders in the state ensured that Amaechi’s exit from the party did not cause its sudden death. The rescue mission couldn’t have been a one-man project. No person should claim to be God here! The party is not for sale nor was it collectively rescued for the benefit of the highest bidder. The party should know the best way to compensate Wike and others who played roles when it mattered most. What our state needs now is a sound technocrat who understands what is needed to move this beautiful and naturally endowed state to the next level.

     

    •Cosmas Omoku,

    Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

     

     

     

  • PDP elders deplore attack on Imoke

    PDP elders deplore attack on Imoke

    Elders and stakeholders in Akwa Ibom State Southern Senatorial Zone of the Peolpes Democratic Party (PDP) have criticised former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke and Senate Leader Victor Ndom-Egba for alleged campaign of calumny against Governor Liyel Imoke.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, the party elders and stakeholders said they could no longer be indifferent to the alleged macabre dance and destructive campaign by Duke and Ndoma-Egba against Imoke.

    They took a swipe at what they called Duke’s and his cohorts’ “desperate and febrile attempt” to foist a governorship aspirant on the state.

    The stakeholders warned that not again would they allow the former governor and those on his side to have their way.

    Prof Nya Asuquo, who spoke on behalf of the group, said: “We, as senior citizens of Cross River State and bona fide members of the PDP in our rights, cannot be indifferent to the macabre dance and campaign of calumny and destruction orchestrated by …Duke, Ndom-Egba and their cohorts.

    “It saddens us that these people, who have benefited the most from the good people of Cross River State are now bent on dragging the state back to the Stone Age because they believe they must always have their way, no matter what happens to the rest of the populace.”

    Asuquo, who reading a statement by 22 elders of the party, added: “These people believe it is their birthright to give Cross River people the governor of their choice… They believe they should import a governorship candidate from Abuja and foist him on us, whether we like it or not.”

     

    “For the first time in the history of Cross River State and the PDP in the state, Imoke has put his foot down and insisted that democracy must be fully participatory and that all the citizens of the state must participate in the election of all candidates, all hell is being let loose by these people. We, the people of this state, say unequivocally that we shall not allow them. No! Not again.”

    The group added: “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones…

    “We, the people of Cross River State, hail Imoke and state party chairman, Ntufam John Okon, for the peaceful and transparent manner in which they conducted the ward delegates’ election on November 1. The moneybags have been put to shame and, for once, their money has not been able to help them.”

     

  • 10,000 PDP, others join APC in Kwara

    10,000 PDP, others join APC in Kwara

    Over 10,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),the  Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP) defected yesterday to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State.

    Former governor and a chieftain of the APC, Senator Bukola Saraki said PDP had lost relevance in the state.

    The breakdown of the numbers of the defectors showed that over 5,000 PDP members, led by their leader Alhaji Baa Jimoh, joined the APC and over 3,200 members of the MPPP, led by their chairman, Abdullahi Shuaib. Others included over 2,000 members of MDB Solidarity Team, led by Comrade Abdulsalam Moshood; members ACPN and other youth groups and associations joined APC in the state.

    Saraki received the defectors into APC.

    The defectors promised their allegiance to the APC, adding that they would ensure the party’s victory in the 2015 elections.

    Saraki said: “Our progress in APC is not hidden. The defection of these people from various factions of the PDP in Kwara shows that PDP has lost its relevance in Kwara beyond recovery. Come 2015, PDP will not only lose in Kwara but nationwide.

    “Once again, I welcome you to APC and assure you that the party’s tenets of fairness, equity, transparency and progress cover you as you join us to fight for the change we crave. Our party is big enough to accommodate all Kwarans and Nigerians with equal participation.”

  • Briggs backs PDP zoning in Rivers

    Briggs backs PDP zoning in Rivers

    A governorship aspirant in next year’s election on the platform of the Rivers  State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Dumo- Lulu Briggs, has  support ed the zoning of its governorship ticket, saying it was for justice and equity.

    He said: “Equity, justice and fair play dictate that zoning should be the criteria for choosing the party’s flag bearer in Rivers State for the guber pools in 2015. Zoning is entrenched in the constitution of the PDP and zoning only recently was used in Akwa Ibom and other states of the country controlled by the PDP to pick candidates and Rivers State will not be an exception.”

    Despite the pronouncement by the Chairman, Mr Felix Obuah, that the ticket was open to all zones, Briggs said: “The clamour for zoning to the riverine in Rivers state is total and wide spread and despite the opposition of a few persons, we believe that in the end, the will of the people will prevail, and the ticket will be zone to the riverine.”

    “The upland has produced the governor for two consecutive terms of eight years each which is 16 years.

    “It is only fair that the riverine people who have supported and waited patiently be also allowed to rule the state and contribute their own quota to development in 2015. You cannot impose another upland person on Rivers state after 16 years of their clinging to power; it’s just unacceptable to our people. That is why we are clamouring for zoning. This should be allowed to happen in the interest of peace, fair play and brotherliness that have always existed amongst us,” he added.

  • Bayelsa PDP aspirants insist on primaries

    Bayelsa PDP aspirants insist on primaries

    •Oppose automatic tickets for senators 

    Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspiring for senatorial tickets in Bayelsa State have called for fair and credible primaries.

    Some of the aspirants warned the party against giving automatic tickets to serving senators.

    Irked by the recent decision of the national leadership of the party and President Goodluck Jonathan to pacify many of the senators with automatic tickets, the aspirants said the move would lead to protest votes against the PDP.

    Some of the angry aspirants, who spoke in Yenagoa, the state capital on condition of anonymity,  said the decision should immediately be reversed in the interest of justice and democratic principles.

    They  described the plan to give automatic tickets to the senators as the highest level of deception by the party, which collected their hard-earned money in exchange for forms.

    Stressing that the decision would spell doom for the party, the aspirants described most of the senators clamouring for automatic tickets as  electoral liabilities.

    They challenged the senators, whom they said had failed their constituencies, to a fair primary elections and vowed to defeat them.

    The Coordinating Secretary, Southsouth Peoples Assembly and a leader of the PDP in the state, Dr. Ayakeme Whiskey, described the decision as undemocratic.

    Whiskey, who is aspiring for the ticket of the Bayelsa West Senatorial District, said the decision was a contradiction to the principles of democracy, which allow the people to choose their leaders freely.

    He said the PDP, by the decision would only succeed in narrowing the political space and presenting misfits to the electorate in the general elections.

    He recalled that, in 1999, the PDP lost the Bayelsa West senatorial seat to the Action for Democracy (AD) because of the decision of  party leaders to present an unpopular candidate.

    “Therefore, the decision to give half of the seats to serving senators, whether they have performed creditably well or otherwise, will lead the party to many problems.

    “The elections do not end in the party. Flagbearers of the party will certainly face the best from other parties and, where a party decided to impose a non-performing candidate on them, there could be protest votes”, he said.

    He said the move by some of the senators to hide under the party for tickes was a demonstration of their unpopularity and lack of performance.

    Whiskey said: “It is my conceived belief that where party members are not given the right to choose their representatives in the manner at which they want it, you are invariably alianating the people from governance.

    “It is particularly painful that some of those senators who are clamouring for third term tickets may not win the elections in their own senatorial constituencies for reasons of non-performance.

    “The concept of representative democracy is that where a representative has served well, the people will naturally volunteer their mandate for the person to go back.

    “Tickets to return should not be seen to be automatic. It should be a product of effective representation. It should be a product of the people being satisfied with the services rendered by the elected representatives.

    Besides, Whiskey said the desicion by the party meant injustice to the aspirants who had spent their money to acquire forms.

    He said: “The decision should be reviewed. It is an injustice to aspirants who have submitted themselves to provide effective representation to their people.

    “Most of us have committed our money and have been doing underground work to actualise our aspiration. I call on the leadership of the party to review the decision, otherwise, we will feel the party has done injustice to us and we will protest it. The decision is undemocratic and should be stopped.

    “I have been reaching out. If a serving senator feels that he is very popular, he should do the same and let the people return him. My prayer is that for the interest of the party, this decision should be reviewed. Justice must not be seen to be selective. Some of these senators could become electoral liabilities to the party.”

  • APC rattled by Jonathan’s declaration, says PDP

    APC rattled by Jonathan’s declaration, says PDP

    The Peoples Democratic Party has said that Tuesday’s declaration by President Goodluck Jonathan rattled the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the “overwhelming support” shown by Nigerians.

    A statement yesterday by PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said instead of accepting the successes already acknowledged by Nigerians, APC leaders went into shadowboxing and mischievous propaganda in a failed attempt to score a cheap political point.

    The ruling party said such a lurid epithet on the APC defied the logic of an alternative while exposing it as hypocritical and opportunistic. It called for objectivity and forthrightness from the political class, especially the opposition as the campaigns for the 2015 general elections begin in earnest.

    It berated the APC for always seeking to gain political capital from the insecurity challenges in the nation, adding that Nigerians, by their massive support on Tuesday, showed that they know the truth and are solidly behind the President.

    The statement said notwithstanding that he defied the expectations of the terrorists and their sponsors to go ahead with the declaration a day after the Potiskum bombing, the President and the PDP stand by the mourning families as his disposition, speech and mobilising of over 100,000 Nigerians in prayers at the event clearly showed.

    It added that for the APC to cry wolf over this declaration, which was scheduled almost a month before the bombing, meant the opposition party was either lacking in institutional memory or suffering from a deliberate amnesia.

    The statement continued: “Nigerians may recall that on the 20th of May, 2014, there was a twin bomb blasts in the city of Jos, killing 118 people and wounding at least 56 others. However, this tragedy on the nation did not restrain the APC from holding its so called “Mega Rally” in Ekiti the very next day, May 21 in promotion of the gubernatorial campaigns of the then Governor Kayode Fayemi. The entire top hierarchy of the APC, its national leaders, governors and the Interim National Executive were in attendance. At the rally, the APC scarcely observed a minute silence in honour of fellow Nigerians mowed down in cold blood before charging the atmosphere with usual insults and loathing acts of insensitivity, speaker after speaker.

    “It will be recalled also that while Nigerians and the International Community applauded President Jonathan for proscribing the terrorist sect, Boko Haram, the APC released a statement on the 10th of June 2013, alleging that such an act was unconstitutional. This is the APC pretending away from the heinous crimes of the same terrorist organisation it once sought protection for.

    “On the other hand, it is on record that President Jonathan and the PDP cancelled all scheduled activities on June 3, 2012 when the Dana Air crashed and declared a week national mourning. Unfortunately, the APC desecrated this as all its leaders converged on Kano the same week to celebrate a turbanning event, meaning that 163 souls that perished as a result of that crash were not important to the party.

    “All over the world, it is known that terrorists plan their evil activities to manipulate political events and policies and that the more you allow them space, the more dastardly and frequent they turn. If terrorists must be denied the publicity they crave so much for, it becomes the responsibility of all patriots in moments like this to work hard to prevent them from hijacking events or taking control of our destiny. Clearly, the APC lacks the political capacity to understand this matter of statecraft.”

  • 2015: PDP senators renew battle against governors

    2015: PDP senators renew battle against governors

    THE crises of interests in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are set to get worse, with senators and governors vowing not to yield an inch in their bitter struggle for tickets.

    No fewer than nine governors are bidding for Senate tickets – a move that has infuriated many senators who plan to return to the National Assembly.

    The senators took their case to President Goodluck Jonathan after a two-day work-to-rule last week.

    The President promised them 40 tickets, which they now claim may have been withdrawn after a meeting of governors with the President on Tuesday night.

    Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam said yesterday that the PDP might implode, should tickets be conceded to senators.

    Suswam is bidding to take over from Senator Barnabas Gemade. He vowed not to step down for the senator.

    PDP senators may renew their work-to-rule. The PDP Senate caucus met for over two hours yesterday after which a source said “firm decisions were taken on a number of issues, including our fate in 2015”.

    The emergency closed door meeting was said to have been held after plenary to review the outcome of the Villa parley.

    The lawmakers resolved to renew their battle with the Presidency and the party, following information that the party and the Presidency may go back on the agreement to give automatic tickets to no fewer 40 senators.

    It was learnt that PDP governors at a meeting with Jonathan on Tuesday insisted that he and the party’s leadership should take another look at automatic tickets for senators.

    The governors reportedly said that instead of granting 40 automatic tickets to senators, they (governors) should be allowed to take up the issue and review it on a state-by-state basis.

    One of the senators told our correspondent that they saw the governors’ stand as a fresh move to outwit them.

    Suspicious of the governors’ plan, the senators resolved to send Mark to the President and the party to drive home their point.

    The source said: “Senators are not happy and I can tell you that a number of people are already contemplating ditching the party.”

    It was also gathered that 11 senators of the PDP from the Northwest may have threatened to dump the party for what they described as its high handedness.

    A source at the meeting said the senators claimed that the PDP ticket was fast becoming a “poisoned chalice” in the zone and that the treatment being meted out to them by the governors was compounding the situation.

    “If care is not taken, the PDP could become a minority in the Senate before the end of the year.

    “The danger again is that going back and forth on agreements reached with the highest organs of the PDP is painting a bad picture of the party,” a source at the meeting said.

    Suswam said though he had tremendous respect for Gemade, he would contest his seat.

    He insisted that politics is not based on age but on the people’s acceptance.

    Suswam, who spoke with reporters in Abuja, said concession of elective offices is not democratic.

    He said as a democratic party, the PDP would not initiate or promote a policy that will lead to the implosion of the party.

    Suswam said: “No. No. No. The PDP is a highly democratic party and all of you know. PDP will not bring a policy that will create problem and create self implosion in the party.

    “The party has not given any person automatic ticket. Even with President Goodluck, we unanimously adopted him as our sole candidate and we want that to be a precedent subsequently that a sitting president should have the right of first refusal.

    “We want to also extend that to governors eventually. But this is what will evolve. It is not something that you go and put as a law. So, no person has given any senator any automatic ticket.

    “The party and the President feel that as we grow institutions, that certain things should be part of growing that institution but this is by way of an appeal where is it is possible and practicable and so when people begin to engage in propaganda and say they were given automatic tickets, that is not the way democracy is practised.”

    He went on:”There is nothing like that. No such arrangement or no such meeting has taken place and no person has promised any person any automatic ticket anywhere.

    “Where there is consensus and acceptance, that is possible, but where people feel that they should go to the field, the party has allowed those people to go to the field.

    “So there is nothing like automatic ticket given to any person. The person who would have been given automatic ticket would have been the President but that wasn’t done.

    “What was done was that the governors met and said, ‘look we will support only President Jonathan’.

    “The legislature said, look we will support only President Jonathan and when the National Working Committee of the party met and the National Executive Committee, they also unanimously agreed that the President should be the sole candidate of our own party.

    Suswam said Gemade promised to serve only one term in the Ssenate when he contested in 2011.

    Suswam said: “I have nothing against Senator Gemade and I still respect him up till tomorrow as an elder of the state and as an elder statesman of this country.

    “But then we are in a contest. Political contest is not about age. It is about who the people want and the people want me in that zone and based even on our own understanding in the senatorial zone, he should not be feeling entitled – you know there is an entitled mentality.

    “That is what is the problem. If something does not belong to you by the local arrangement on ground and you now feel entitled because you were this you were that, all of us have been something.

    “So I believe that we should go to the contest. I am not saying that he should step down for me. I will not go to Mr. President to ask Gemade to step down for me.

    “If we go to the field and he defeats me I will support him and I expect the same from him. But this propaganda in the newspapers that the Presidency or Abuja has stepped in, that won’t work. That will not work.”