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  • Aguariavwodo sworn in as Senator

    Aguariavwodo sworn in as Senator

    The Senate in Abuja on Wednesday administered oath of office on Chief Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, the new senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District.

    Aguariavwodo, elected on the platform of the PDP, replaced late Sen. Pius Ewherido of Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), who died on June 30, 2013.

    The new senator, who briefed newsmen after the plenary, said he was grateful for the support the Senate gave the people of Delta when Ewherido died.

    According to NAN report, the new Senator promised to continue the projects started by the deceased senator, adding that they were all working to improve the living conditions of the people of Delta.

    “We believe in continuity, government is a continuum so whatever project that my predecessor started we will continue to support them with the best of our ability.

    “We believe that most of the projects he started were to the benefit of our people, so, we will continue to make sure that those projects are brought to fruition,’’ he said.

    Meanwhile, the Senate on Wednesday deferred consideration on the National Health Bill to another legislative day.

    One of the amendments affected, included that a health care officer should not refuse anyone on emergency treatment for any reason whatsoever.

    It would be recalled that health practitioners refuse treatment to patients with gunshot wounds unless such a patient had a police report.

  • PDP crisis: Oyinlola barred from NGF poll

    PDP crisis: Oyinlola barred from NGF poll

    The crackdown on members of the New Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continued on Tuesday with orders from above stopping the outgoing President of the Nigeria Golf Federation (NGF), Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola from recontesting for the post.

    According to Oyinlola, who is the National Secretary of the Abubakar Kawu Baraje faction of the PDP, his name was dropped from contestants’ list for the post of the President of the Golf Federation at the last minute.

    The election was conducted alongside those of other sports associations on Tuesday by the National Sports Commission.

    Narrating his ordeal to newsmen, Oyinlola said no one has explained to him why he was stopped from contesting NGF poll.

    He added: “I was about driving to the election venue when I received a call from a key NGF player that my name had been removed as a candidate. I asked why, but he said he learnt it was on ‘orders from above.’ I then called one of those in charge of the exercise who also told me he could not explain why I was barred from contesting.

    “He said he would advise me not to show up at all. I called the minister but his line was switched off. That is it. It simply shows that the impunity we are talking about now knows no boundary.

    “I do not think we should drag our national politics into sports. It is not in the interest of anyone to do that. I love golf that is why I have been committing my time and resources to its development. This latest political action is very unfortunate but I bear no grudge against anyone.”

    It was gathered that Oyinlola was set to emerge unopposed as NGF president with the only other person interested in the post being his personal friend, Chief Sam Iredia, not likely to contest against him.

  • Oyo PDP, Accord members join APC

    Defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Accord were received into the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State at the weekend.

    Governor Abiola Ajimobi received the defectors at a carnival-like rally at the Olomi Market in Ibadan, the state capital.

    The people were entertained by Fuji musician Rashidi Ayinde.

    Ajimobi assured the new members of a level-playing field.

    He pledged to rebuild the Olomi-Olojuoro road and execute more projects in the council.

    APC State Chairman Chief Akin Oke said the party was open to new members.

    Speaking for defectors from the PDP, a former council Chairman, Alhaji Lukman Olanrewaju, said they were attracted to the APC by the quality of projects executed by the Ajimobi administration.

    He said: “We were attracted by the governor’s performance and the accessibility of the Oluyole Council Chairman, Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, to the people.”

    The leader of the defectors from the Accord, simply identified as Mr. Aborisade (a.k.a. Oosa), thanked the governor for giving them the opportunity to join the party.

     

  • This is no scare mongering

    This is no scare mongering

    Nigerians know from history that PDP has no two means of winning elections other than by rigging.

    In his electoral Beatitude in Jerusalem, President Jonathan promised a better electoral system saying, with glee, that ‘though we have challenges in our electoral system, at least, it is better than what it was yesterday.’  With due respect, Mr. President, I beg to disagree. A pattern of election rigging ahead of 2015 is emerging as any keen observer of recent elections in the country would readily affirm. And it is certainly not by happenstance; rather, it is a well choreographed test run of what will be put into play in the 2014 elections in both Ekiti and Osun, as well as, at least, the presidential election, come 2015. Of course, they will attempt to deploy the ‘Ondo template’ in Anambra where they will do everything to assist the president’s friend, Governor Peter Obi, to engineer the APGA candidate’s ‘victory’. Other candidates in that election, especially APC’s Senator Ngige, should, therefore, learn from Ondo and properly scutinise the voter’s register into which may have been imported hundreds of thousands of spurious names. They must insist on a public verification of the voters’ list which INEC tries its utmost to avoid whenever it is up to some dubious game. Examples of these recently compromised elections will further elucidate the point being made.

    Commenting on the Delta Central Senatorial bye election which held recently as a result of the unfortunate death of Senator Pius Ewherido, Ede Dafinone , the  DPP candidate in the election, has the following  to say of the electoral  process : ‘there was no election, as defined by our laws. The scale of impunity, assault, molestations and violence by the PDP, thugs/cultists and the supposed security agents was just unimaginable. The lopsided and partisan involvement of state security apparatuses in supporting the PDP and the brazen use of thugs to unleash violence and mayhem on our party members and the electorate is unprecedented. Thus there is now very serious concern for the progress of our nascent democracy and a diminishing hope for peace, unity and good governance in Nigeria, both now and in the immediate future’. The APC interim Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, corroborated this and named specific areas where  all these were most pronounced, citing reports from APC agents on the field, who he said indicated that armed soldiers and policemen were deployed strategically to intimidate voters, while trailers and tankers were used to block the roads leading to opposition strongholds. A particularly dangerous dimension to PDP’s rigging methods was to suborn Youth Corps members to refrain from doing their legitimate electoral duties on the day, a fact which, in future, could expose these young persons to extreme danger or why would they take that particular day to protest non-payment of their allowances if they were not being instigated by those who have the most to lose?

    On the heels of that and within two weeks of each other, a whole state governor, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, also known to be the President’s friend , at least up until the last gubernatorial election in the state, had this to say of a local government election that was being held, unsuccessfully,  for the third time simply because the PDP’s ‘Ogas at the top’ thought they could, as of old, rail road victory, in spite of the huge development the local government has enjoyed under the incumbent governor unlike when they were in charge: ‘As a Nigerian, I am embarrassed that the police are involved in carrying electoral materials, arresting EDSIEC returning officers and coercing them into a police station and converting it into a collation centre supervised by policemen imported from Abuja and Lagos in order to subvert the will of the people of Esan North East. As a civilised man, I felt ashamed that men in uniform at rather very senior levels supervised this criminal act of the police in yesterday’s (Tuesday) election. A federal minister and other federal functionaries, including Assembly men used their exalted positions, taking unfair advantage of the police assigned to protect them and deployed them for election purposes, detaining returning officers and treating them as if they were prisoners of war and, under duress, compelling them to sign fake results and police becoming Returning Officers writing result sheets.’

    A comparison of the above quotes copiously corroborates the latest devilish devices of the PDP. But the question Nigerians must ask is this: if all these are happening in a state or local government election, what will they not do at the presidential? And that is not to forget the icing of the cake, the ‘Offa abracadabra’, where, in broad day light, the APC was robbed of its chairmanship victory even where everybody knows that the PDP could never have won.

    Nothing worries me more than the fact that even if INEC, the electoral umpire, was not complicit, ab initio; it is completely acquiescent of the illegalities. The Delta Resident Electoral Commissioner, a woman who nearly reminds one of the Ekiti experience, could therefore say, without a hint of shame, that “there can never be 100 per cent perfection in any election conducted anywhere in the world’. Does that remind you of plane crashes as an act of God? Wonders, they say, will never cease.  This was followed in the well-rehearsed choreography by the state Commissioner of Police, Ikechukwu Aduba, who said the bye-election was peaceful because his men were at all the voting centres to maintain law and order; the same policemen that stories abound were guarding ballot box snatchers.

    Nigerians know from history that PDP has no two means of winning elections other than by rigging. They rig even those elections they should ordinarily have won.  It is also well known that the much celebrated 2011 presidential election was massively rigged in the North as well as in the South-East where jumbo figures tumbled in.

    In Ekiti where the first of the 2014 elections will hold, not a whimper has been heard from the colony of about 16 wannabe PDP candidates since they, minus former Governor Ayo Fayose, met on or about 30 July, 2013, to jointly sign a communiqué supporting a consensus candidate. It would appear the party has now located its consensus candidate and what remains to be done is find the ‘official’ PDP candidate, the caricature candidate, that is, who will be utterly dumped by the party as happened to Sola Oke in Ondo State. As in the Ondo case, Abuja would spare nothing; not money, tonnes of it, not the entire Nigerian security apparati, for the Labour candidate while, like Oke, their own caricature candidate, will be left hard and dry. The poor gentleman, Sola Oke, in case you had forgotten, even had to carry his own can at the tribunal as PDP treated him like a wet rag. That is what they are perfecting for Ekiti, and it will not matter whoever that candidate is, even if it is Oga’s former boss. But somebody should tell them they are mistaken. In the first place, they will have more than 70 percent of Ekiti people to contend with whatever their nearby South-West Coordinator-General may be telling them in Abuja. They should be told too, in case they cannot see, the tremendous developmental achievements the incumbent governor will, on campaign carnivals, take to the Ekiti people who are already very appreciative of his accomplishments, even in just three years. They should know that while the PDP has no record of achievement in the state, except you reckon that six governors in seven years is one, their real candidate on the Labour Party platform would have a hell of a time explaining off moral turpitude; at least, that of biting the fingers that fed him so generously and the very party that gave him an unmerited political leverage, even gifting him a House of Representatives’ ticket he never contested for, not to talk of winning, as well as explain why he thinks Iyin-Ekiti, the beautiful town of decent people,  rich history and culture  where he comes from, deserves to produce three governors for Ekiti State, having produced our revered father and the Omoluabi first Executive  Governor of the state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, even when an entire senatorial district in the state is yet to produce a single one and is crying marginalisation to high heavens. He will now officially be invited by us, his constituents, to personally identify those phantom constituency projects he has so elegantly claimed in publications but which the most due diligent search has not succeeded in locating; not bore holes, nor internet cafes, nothing. We, in Ekiti Central are certainly waiting for that 8th wonder of the world.

  • PDP won’t condone corruption

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday broke its silence on the N225 million armoured cars’ controversy for Aviation Minister Princess Stella Oduah.

    The party said it would not condone corruption.

    The PDP said it was worried by the scandal the car purchase had thrown up.

    The party promised that the matter would not be swept under the carpet.

    In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the ruling party said the position of its national leadership on zero tolerance for corruption would not be compromised.

    Metuh recalled that the PDP had never prevented the trial of its chieftains for corruption.

    He assured that the position had not changed.

    Metuh said: “It is common knowledge that, at one time or the other, top leaders of our party or their relatives faced charges of corruption and never was the law restrained from taking its full course.

    “To us as a party, the accusation of corruption in the Aviation Ministry is a big worry. It is for this reason that the President and the leader of our party has set up a panel to investigate the matter while the National Assembly, which we also lead, has stepped in. We commend the President and the National Assembly for doing what is appropriate in the circumstance.”

    The party spokesman cautioned critics against making unfounded statements on the matter, in the interest of due process and fairness.

    He urged Nigerians to desist from convicting those involved in the saga before their trial.

    According to him, the intimidation of aviation officials before the trial could be counter-productive.

    Metuh added: “It is a fundamental rule of due process and fairness that these investigations be allowed a full course so that those at the centre of the saga would be availed an opportunity to offer their own side and avoid a case of conviction before trial.

    “We, however, wish to assure Nigerians that whoever is found culpable shall reap in full, the bitter consequences of corruption and disservice to our dear nation. If otherwise established, the aviation officials should not be intimidated but remain focused in the outstanding transformation that Nigerians have witnessed in the sector.”

  • Amaechi, PDP chair disagree

    Amaechi, PDP chair disagree

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Rivers Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Felix Obuah, have disagreed on the cause of the death of the mother of Dame Patience Jonathan, Madam Charity Fyneface Oba.

    Amaechi, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), equally disagreed with Obuah on the alleged directive to Rivers commissioners and council chairmen to register with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Rivers PDP alleged that it had uncovered a plot by the Rivers government to disparage and castigate President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, ahead of Friday’s funeral of Madam Oba.

    Amaechi, however, described the allegations as a clear fabrication and a figment of imagination of Obuah.

  • Tukur for peace, reconciliation

    The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, yesterday pledged that the leadership of the party would not waver in the task of effecting the needed reforms.

    He restated the party’s commitment to seeking peace, unity and reconciliation among the membership.

    The party chairman said: “There is no going back in this struggle to entrench democracy and good governance in our country. No going back in seeking peace, unity and reconciliation of our differences.

    “I want all of you to understand where our family is and the family will always adjust and move forward and do what is in the best interest of the family.

    “I can assure you of our journey to rebuilding our party based on equity and justice in which there is no going back. We will entrench a process of election, and not selection. Our philosophy remains consensus and not imposition.

    “When you have a strong united and peaceful political party you are sure of having a good developmental programme for the nation”.

    Tukur stated this yesterday when some interest groups visited the party’s secretariat.

  • What is Dikko Disciplinary Committee up to?

    What is Dikko Disciplinary Committee up to?

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has set up a disciplinary committee headed by Second Republic Transport Minister Dr. Umaru Dikko. But many stakeholders believe that what the party needs is reconciliation and not sanctions. Assistant Editor GBADE OGUNWALE reports.

    Ailing 77-year-old Dr Umaru Dikko, the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Disciplinary Committee. His job is to investigate the allegations of indiscipline against party members and recommend the appropriate sanctions. The seven-member committee, which was inaugurated last week, is coming at a time the ruling party is desperate for peace and reconciliation with aggrieved and alienated members across the country. To make its job easier, the leadership of the PDP had exempted the seven “rebellious” governors, otherwise known as the G-7, from the committee’s brief.

    Also, leaders and members of the Abubakar Baraje faction, otherwise known as the New PDP, have also been excused from the committee. Their case is still pending before the Peace and Reconciliation Committee led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. A peace meeting between the breakaway group and the camp of President Goodluck Jonathan, which was scheduled for October 7, was put on hold. No new date has been fixed for the meeting. With these exceptions, the scope of the Dikko Committee appears narrowed down to a handful of cases across the various geo-political zones.

    The states where the committee may have a job to do are Kwara, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Rivers, Kano, Adamawa, Bayelsa and Lagos. Only a few days ago, a faction in the Kwara State chapter had approached the national leadership for sanctions against members of the New PDP. Former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki, his successor, Abdulfatah Ahmed and former Acting National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, are some of the leaders of the new PDP. A group led by the chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Professor Abdulraheem Oba, stormed the Abuja national secretariat, demanding for decisive action against Saraki and his loyalists. Specifically, the group sought to take over the party machinery from Saraki and his followers, describing them as “renegade members”. The PDP national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to wield the big stick, the group said that Saraki and his group have lost relevance. A chieftain Alhaji Salman Alada, said certain individuals who believe that nothing happens in Kwara politics without them will be brought to shame.

    “There cannot be two masters in the ship of PDP. The era of indiscipline is gone. Kwara State PDP will remain with the mainstream PDP. We apoligise for whatever might have happened. The new PDP is not known to any law. We want you to put on ground a strong disciplinary action to restore sanity because, if left undone, a lot of damage would be done by these renegades. We urge you to take steps to restore sanity in Kwara. The new PDP, as far as we can recognise in Kwara, is a party that has been constituted by proclamation and it is unknown to any democratic ideas or principles. If the people promoting that party are doing so on the excuse that they are trying to entrench democracy within the parent party, that is the wrong way to go. We on this delegation urge you, Mr. Chairman, that the time is now; not tomorrow. You must put on ground your strong foot of discipline to restore sanity in Kwara PDP”. Apparently referring to Saraki, Alada added: “People don’t know the true state of affairs in Kwara. Once they see one person, they think it’s Kwara. With the backing of the leadership of the party, Kwara must remain in the mainstream of the PDP”. Professor Oba also implored the National Working Committee (NWC) to ensure that any party chieftain in Kwara State, who identified with the Baraje faction, is brought to book. According to the him the PDP under Tukur’s leadership should not condone acts of indiscipline typified by the actions of Saraki, Baraje, Governor Ahmed and others who walked out on the party to join the breakaway faction. Tukur was however, tactical in his response to the group’s demands. He enjoined the delegation to align with the national leadership in the search for peace and reconciliation. According to the chairman, the leadership of the party would continue to push for total reconciliation with estranged members. Tukur insisted that the party would always be guided by the principle of consensus building.

    He said: “We believe in reconciliation without confrontation; restoring the party’s dignity without revenge, and also to build the party based on equity and justice”. Also in the delegation were Presidential Adviser on Ethics Mrs. Sarah Jubril; Senator, Suleiman Ajadi; former Transport Minister, Isa Bio; Mr. John Dara; Bode Ojomu. But, if the party is to be guided by the principle of reconciliation and consensus building, as enunciated by the chairman, then, what role is expected of the Dikko committee? Again, there is s subsisting national reconciliation committee chaired by the Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson. The Dickson committee was put in place by the leadership of the party, with the backing of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The committee had met with the factions in many states, to address their grievances. But, while the Dickson committee has been summoning stakeholders for reconciliatory meetings, the leadership of the party appears to be taking steps that tend to aggravate the existing cleavages. For instance, while the peace committee was still working, the NWC, on September 16, dissolved the executive committee of the Kano State chapter. A caretaker committee was constituted to replace the dissolved executive. The dissolution came shortly after the party received Mohammed, son of the late maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha, back into the PDP. Alhaji Alhassan Kafayos was named as the chairman of the caretaker committee, while Mr. Andrew Musa was appointed secretary.

    They were immediately sworn-in by the National Legal Adviser, Mr. Victor Kwom. The National Organising Secretary Abubakar Mustapha, said other members of the committee would be appointed in Kano during the week. But the other members that were co-opted into the caretaker committee had been on war the path with Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso. Speaking at the inauguration, Tukur said the tenure of the dissolved exco had expired on August 15. According to him, the party observed the rules and provision of its constitution in setting up the caretaker committee. Tukur charged the committee members to ensure that they listen to the grievances of aggrieved members, with a view to addressing them. He told them that winning the Kano governorship election in 2015 is a task that must be accomplished.

    The committee was set up without any input from the Kano governor, lending credence to insinuations that the committee was a ploy to sideline Governor Kwankwaso in the running of the chapter. Speaking with journalists a few days after the committee was inaugurated, MohammedAbacha said he joined the PDP in 2010 and left the party for the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). He again left the CPC in 2010, owing to what he described as the lack of internal democracy in the CPC. Abacha added that he had held consultations with various PDP stakeholders, except the governor, who he promised to consult later. But the Baraje faction has never hidden it’s disdain for the peace efforts. According to the faction, Tukur is the obstacle to reconciliation.

    The National Publicity Secretary of the faction, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, accused Tukur of creating crises in the various chapters and making half- hearted moves at reconciliation. Eze said Tukur had frustrated all efforts being made by President Goodluck Jonathan and other leaders to end crises in the party.

    Eze said: “The latest of the belligerent actions by the Tukur faction is the ill-advised move to take over the structures in the states controlled by the governors loyal to Baraje’s leadership. Mr. President should not be deceived by some party leaders, who are making him believe that he can do without us.

    “Most of these leaders cannot, under a properly organised free and fair elections, win their wards. It is obvious that no presidential election in Nigeria can be won without states like Rivers, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kwara, Niger and Kebbi states, which are under our control. Check the past general elections and you will see that some of these media-created PDP leaders have no followers in their states at the moment, talk less of making any impact come 2015″.

    The faction however, commended Jonathan and other party leaders for seeking amicable resolution of the crises and appealed to them not to relent in their determination to achieve results. According to Eze, what the PDP needs is not a disciplinary committee. Rather, the party, he said, is in dire need of internal democracy. He insisted that all the cases of disagreement and alleged anti-party activities by members were borne out of frustrations arising from the culture of impunity by the PDP under Tukur’s watch.

    Eze added: “We are asking that internal democracy be allowed to thrive within the party and that Tukur and his undemocratic gang should not see the party as their personal property in which they can wake up any day and fire whoever they dreamt about in their sleep. We will no longer condone such undemocratic reasoning and acts. We are adamant on achieving our aim of restoring democratic normalcy within the PDP as envisaged by the founding fathers of the party. This is a battle to which we have committed ourselves and there is no going back, until undemocratic elements within our party are flushed out as their acts have done much harm and brought much shame to our great party”.

    There is not much for the Dikko committee to do. In his acceptance speech after inauguration, the frail-looking Dikko was hardly audible. His movement from the ground floor to the second floor, the venue of the ceremony, was a labourous one. He was aided to his seat and it took some efforts before he could lower his frail frame into the seat. Going by the precarious situation in the PDP today, the Dikko Committee may as well be a window dressing. Analysts are of the opinion that, with the fragile state of party, any attempt by its leadership to hand down sanctions to aggrieved members may deepen the discontent in the ruling party.

     

  • Tukur restates commitment to peace, reconciliation

    Tukur restates commitment to peace, reconciliation

    The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, on Tuesday vowed that the leadership of the party would not waver in the task of effecting the needed reforms.

    He restated the party’s commitment to seeking peace, unity and reconciliation among the membership.

    Tukur said: “There is no going back in this struggle to entrench democracy and good governance in our country. No going back in seeking peace, unity and reconciliation of our differences.

    “I want all of you to understand where our family is and the family will always adjust and move forward and do what is in the best interest of the family.

    “I can assure you of our journey to rebuilding our party based on equity and justice in which there is no going back. We will entrench a process of election, and not selection. Our philosophy remains consensus and not imposition.

    “When you have a strong united and peaceful political party you are sure of having a good developmental programme for the nation.”

    Tukur stated this when some interest groups paid him a courtesy visit at the party’s secretariat.

     

     

  • G-7 governors: no stopping us

    G-7 governors: no stopping us

    •Progressive governors, PDM, Atiku slam police

    The Group of Seven Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors and the Baraje faction of the ruling party yesterday declared that their activities cannot be stopped in spite of the harassment they are suffering.

    On Sunday night, their meeting proposed for the Sokoto State Governor’s Lodge was stopped by the police.

    But in a communiqué released yesterday, they claimed to have held the meeting at an undisclosed location, using the Sokoto Governor’s Lodge as a decoy.

    According to the resolutions of the meeting released by the Baraje PDP’s Publicity Secretary Chukwuemeka Eze, those in attendance were: Governors Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); former governors Adamu Aliero (Kebbi State); Bukola Saraki (Kwara State); Danjuma Goje (Gombe State); and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa State).

    Others included the factional National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje; Deputy Chairman Sam Sam Jaja; National Secretary Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and Vice-Chairman, North-West, Ibrahim Kazuare, among others.

    The statement added that the excuse by Governors Abdufatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) to be absent from the meeting was tabled and accepted.

    The resolutions included: commendation for the Kawu Baraje-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for exhibiting quality and purposeful leadership as opposed to “the draconian style of leadership being exhibited by the Bamanga Tukur faction of the party.”

    The enlargement of the Mobilisation/Contact Committee to include more governors and ex-governors.

    To explore other options available to the party “should the dialogue with President Jonathan fail to yield any positive result for its future political activity as the vision and mission of the party cannot be derailed by any force or group of people no matter the ploys and plots.”

    The Committee is expected “to liaise with the five other PDP governors and other leaders that have indicated interest to join the group and to submit their report during the next meeting of the caucus that will hold in a week’s time to ascertain how these distinguished new members would be received by the party.”

    The meeting also set up a Fund/Finance Committee mandated to source for extra funds to run the party.

    “The meeting reviewed all our Court cases so far and counselled the legal team to ensure that our water-tight cases are professionally handled and commended the team for filling the notice of appeal and also seeking an injunction and a stay of execution of Justice Chukwu’s ruling against us some days ago before the Federal High Court, Abuja.”

    The meeting expressed regret that its members have been unfairly treated and humiliated by the Tukur-led PDP.

    It called for the lifting of the ban on Rivers State Governor Rotime Amaechi and his recognition as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum by the President.

    It fixed the group’s next meeting for next week.

    Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday described as an attack on the constitution, the police stoppage of the Group of seven (G7) Peoples Democratic Party governors and the Baraje faction meeting in Abuja on Sunday.

    The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also criticised the action.

    In separate statements yesterday, they warned against a return to harassment of citizens by the police in a democratic set up.

    The progressive governors said: “In what is clearly an attack on Nigerians’ Constitutionally guaranteed rights of association and freedom of movement, the Federal Government yesterday, 27th October 2013, illegally used the coercive arm of the state – the Nigeria police to storm and forcibly dislodge seven governors as well as other citizens from the Sokoto Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja.

    “From a government that purports to obey the rule of law, the disruption of a peaceful meeting by the police is not only crude, condemnable and unwarranted, but is a reflection of government’s growing intolerance and an affront on the democratic rights of Nigerians.

    “Particularly disturbing and worthy of note is that if seven governors, all of whom are constitutionally-guaranteed immunity from prosecution can be manhandled in such a brutal manner, what would be the fate of ordinary citizens who seek to exercise their rights to freedom association?

    “It is evident that the federal government is unlawfully using the police for its illegal and nefarious activities for the purpose of intimidation aimed at imposing the BamangaTukur-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on other party members and Nigerians.

    “The Progressive Governors Forum finds it unacceptable that Police have been reduced to partisan agents and attack dogs that only serve a part of a political party when the levels of insecurity in the country are so high. It is reckless to take partisan contest to levels of warfare as the federal government has done because this would only weaken the capacity of security operatives in responding to real security challenges. “

    The PDM also rose in defence of the embattled G-7 governors.

    In a statement by its national chairman Mallam Bashir Ibrahim, the PDM accused President Goodluck Jonathan of reckless use of state machinery against members of the opposition.

    Mallam Ibrahim’s statement, signed by spokesman of the PDM, Alaba Yusuf, described the President’s action as “nothing but political witch-hunting and shameless display of intolerance”.

    The reaction is coming on the heels of defiance by members of the Baraje faction to continue to win more members to the faction, regardless of the threat to their personal safety. A scheduled meeting of the G-7 governors and members of the faction was aborted Sunday night by armed policemen.

    The PDM said “President Jonathan should spend his energy fighting the rot inside his party and government. Let him deploy his uncommon zeal in dealing with the opposition to fighting the monumental level of corruption in which his favourite ministers are involved.

    “Let him cleanse the ministries of Petroleum, Aviation, Niger Delta and Defense of corruption and stop industrial-scale oil theft in the creeks. Then we will know he is serious about solving Nigeria’s problems. Jonathan should stop chasing shadows and overheating the polity.

    “It is no longer news the grave intimidation and harassment being dished out to the G-7. The precarious political situation in Rivers and Adamawa States where constituted political structures are daily being undermined or completely usurped is also unacceptable.

    “We call on President Jonathan to stop this fascism.

    Atiku criticised the police and the Federal Government for breaching constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens who share contrary political views by assaulting their rights to freedom of association and assembly.

    According to him, the democratic liberties of citizens are more important than individual political ambitions.

    He deplored the incessant harassment and humiliation of political opponents insisting that it is indefensible.

    The former Vice President maintained that freedom of association and assembly are constitutional guarantees, which should not be violated at will by the any government.

    The Turaki Adamawa argued that these constitutional guarantees are superior to party politics.

    “I am alarmed at the level of impunity with which the Police are frequently breaching the rights of Nigerian citizens to association,” the former Vice President noted.