The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

  • Power Probe: APC, PDP Reps may clash over Obasanjo

    THERE are indications that the All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the House of Representatives and their counterparts in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may soon be on warpath over the decision of the lower house to probe the country’s power sector.

    Sources claimed that while the APC lawmakers are ready for a no-holes-bar probe that will investigate projects and funding in the sector since the country’s return to democracy, their PDP counterparts would want the House to tread cautiously in handling some of the people being mentioned in relations to the sector.

    A member of the House from Katsina State, Sada Soli, representing Jibia/Kaita Federal Constituency, had moved a motion which he tagged ‘Need to review government expenditure on the power sector’ had said the probe is necessary to ensure sustenance of the power reform programme. The lawmaker urged the national assembly to revisit spending and yearly allocations to the sector as a way of unraveling the reason for the nation’s unending power problems.

    Following debate on the floor of the House, Sada’s motion was unanimously adopted by the House and it was resolved that an ad hoc committee should be promptly constituted to “carry out a comprehensive investigative hearing on how much money was spent on the power sector reform programme over the years. It is also saddled with the task of finding out reasons why there are no commensurate results for the funds expended in the sector. The committee is to report back within six weeks for further legislative action.

    Read Also: ACF hits Obasanjo over letter to Buhari

    Findings by The Nation revealed that following allegations in some quarters that the planned power probe may be targeted at some individuals, some members of the PDP in the green chamber are battle ready to ensure that the committee does not summon certain people, especially former President Olusegun Obasanjo and others who served in the previous regimes, to come and appear before it in the discharge of its assignment. This is however just as prominent APC lawmakers have vowed that the committee’s assignment must be thorough; not minding whose ox is gored.

    While it is unclear if the committee has commenced its assignment, The Nation gathered that moves are already on by the two sides to ensure that thing go their ways when the lawmakers return from their current break. A member of the House from Edo State, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said interested members are already reaching out to their colleagues over the matter. According to him, some members of the House committee on power confirmed to have been contacted by the two divides.

    “What is happening should not come to anybody as a surprise. The issue of probes in the power sector in this country is not a new thing. And each time we talk about it, politics creeps in. That is what is happening again. To further compound the issue, some people are making it appear as if this is about a particular political party and its members. Not at all. This is about Nigeria and the need to know what happened in the past. It is an attempt to know why the power sector is not working and what can be done to make it work.

    “In the process, if there are people we need to ask to appear before the committee or any other body involved in the process, why should that be a problem? Is anybody greater than the country? Those who have nothing to hide should not fear. I will say it is those with hidden secrets that are whipping up these sentiments. Unfortunately, some of our members are being too partisan about the whole issue. The committee has a job to do and it will be supported to do it. That is what the whole House resolved when Sada moved the motion,” he said.

    But another legislator from Oyo State warned that the said probe should not be allowed to create bad blood in the 9th assembly. According to him, some members of the ruling party are carrying on as if they already have the people they are expecting to be invited in mind. “If we said we will probe a sector and some people out there are saying don’t use it to embarrass some people, I think we as lawmakers, should listen and reassess our plans. A situation where we don’t want to listen to other opinions will not augur well. Don’t forget we are first politicians before we got into the House and we belong to different political parties with different political interests and allies,” he said.

     

     

  • PDP Govs. applaud Supreme Court rejection of Zamfara APC application

    Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have commended the Supreme Court for rejecting the application by the All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking a review of the May 24  judgement of the court on the voided  Zamfara state elections.

    The governors, in a statement on Monday by the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Mr Seriake Dickson, threw their weight behind the five-man panel of justices, led by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivor.

    The apex court had dismissed the APC’s application as incompetent and lacking in merit.

    The statement said “Providence has by this verdict, put a stamp of approval on the exceptional developments achieved in the state by Gov. Bello Matawalle since being sworn in on May 29, 2019.

    Read Also: PDP tenders 241 exhibits against Ganduje at tribunal

    “God stopped their sinister plan to thwart the people-oriented human, social, economic, environmental and structural development blueprints that Matawalle and his team have already rolled out for the state.

    “We, in the PDP and majority of the good people of Zamfara, will welcome any errant but repentant APC politician, who sheds negativity and joins hands with us to implement policies that will further this State.

    “May the good Lord give Governor Bello Matawalle the wisdom, strength and foresight to expand the developmental territories of Zamfara to a height that the entire people of the state will be proud of”.

  • PDP advises FG to declare state of emergency on security

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on security in order to address insecurity situation in the country.

    The PDP National Chairman, Mr Uche Secondus, made the appeal at a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja while reacting to the open letter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Secondus said that the advice was necessary looking at the increasing rate of cases of killing and kidnapping across the country.

    He recalled the killing of the then female international aide work and the recent killing of Mrs Funke Olakunrin daughter of Pa Reuben Fasoranti, leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere.

    Secondus said that the worsen security situation between April and now had made concerned patriotic leaders to voice out their concerns.

    These leaders, according to him, include Obasanjo; the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan; Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka; and former governor of old Kaduna State, Malam Balarabe Musa, among others.

    Read Also: ‘PDP may not win Bayelsa’

    Secondus described Obasanjo’s letter as truth that could not be run away from, if the insecurity situation must be addressed.

    “Former President Obasanjo in a timely tirade to the President on Monday raised all the issues and properly situated the security position in the country.

    “He went further to highlight the implications of the current state of the nation and where we are headed if urgent steps are not taken.

    “As National Chairman of the main opposition party I cannot agree less with the former President.

    “I cannot agree less with him where he said among other things that Quote …”The main issue, if I may dare say, is poor management or mismanagement of diversity which, on the other hand, is one of our greatest and most important assets…”.

    Secondus said that the PDP whole heatedly associates itself with the position of the patriotic Nigerians.

    “The PDP urges President Buhari to respond appropriately to their timely advisories by declaring state of emergency on security in the country and go further urgently to address the issues raised in Obasanjo’s letter.

    Secondus said that the killing of Mrs Olakunrin was the height point of murdering of innocent Nigerians across the land.

    “It certainly cannot be well for a nation that creates an ugly situation where a 94-year-old Nationalist would be burying her 58-year-old daughter.

    “This certainly is not Nigeria of our dream.”

    Secondus also urged Nigerians not to underplay or trivialize the issues.

  • PDP chieftain consoles with Fasoranti

    A LEGAL luminary and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), has described the killing of the daughter of Chief Reuben Fashoranti, leader of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, by suspected herdsmen as a sad reminder of the state of insecurity in the country.

    Jegede, in a statement in Akure, the Ondo State capital yesterday, said he was miffed upon realising that, despite cries by well-meaning Nigerians, little or nothing was being done to stem the tide of banditry on the highways.

    Jegede, who was PDP’s governorship candidate in the 2016 election, said: “I was taken aback to hear of the killing of Pa Reuben Fashoranti’s daughter by hoodlums suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, on the Benin-Shagamu expressway.

    He added: “This is not only disheartening but also a sad reminder of the state of insecurity in the country, about which many well-meaning Nigerians have shouted themselves hoax.

    “This state of utter disappointment stems from the fact that despite cries by eminent citizens, especially from the South-West, and despite the concern shown by our party, the PDP, indications continue to show that little or nothing is being done to stem the tide of banditry on our highways.”

    Jegede said: “The killing of Fashorati’s daughter is an unkind cut to the nonagenarian at the twilight of his life.”

    He stressed: “For somebody who has contributed a lot to the unity, progress and development of not only the Yoruba race but Nigeria as a whole, to have lost his daughter in this kind of circumstance is really, really appalling, and can only be described as the shame of a nation,” he condemned.

    Jegede, renewed his appeal to the Federal Government to encourage community policing by allowing the evolution of a state policing system, which he said, the PDP would have implemented, if it had been in power.

     

  • Olakunrin: Nigeria, a killing field under Buhari, PDP laments

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned  the gruesome killing of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, daughter of elder statesman, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, by yet -to- be apprehended gunmen.

    In a statement Saturday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party also lamented what it described as the unpardonable lethargy in apprehending Olakunrin’s killers since she was killed on Friday.

    The PDP said it’s heartrending that under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the nation has become a killing field and large funeral palour with insurgents, bandits and assassins having a field day waylaying and killing innocent compatriots, especially those making very useful contributions to the development of the nation.

    The statement said, “Our party is worried that security agencies are rather engaging in debates over the identity of the killers and hurriedly pointing to a case of abduction even before any extensive investigation has been carried out on the horrific and dastardly act.

    “The party bewails that the killing of Funke Olakunrin marks yet another national loss occasioned by the failure of the Buhari administration to secure the nation beyond lip service, a development that has emboldened marauders in our country.

    Read Also: PDP cautions on fuel price hike

    “The PDP posits that Funke Olakunrin must not die in vain. Our dear nation must not continue to lose her finest and brightest in the hands of bandits. Our party therefore charges the authorities to go beyond condolence messages from Abuja and take concrete steps to apprehend Funke Olakunrin’s killers, as well as ensure security of lives in our nation.

    “The PDP, while condoling Pa Fasoranti, charges the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, to take immediate and decisive steps, beyond the lip service of the Buhari administration, to track down the killers without further delay and make them face the full wrath of the law, no matter who they are”.

  • 80 Reps back Elumelu, Ikpeazu, others

    Eighty members of the House of Representatives on Thursday joined Minority Leader Godwin Ndudi Elumelu and his group in solidarity as they appeared before a probe panel constituted by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Elumelu and six others were recently suspended for one month by the leadership of the PDP for flouting the party’s in choosing candidates for House minority positions.

    Suspended alongside Eleumelu are: Lynda Ikpeazu, Wole Oke, Anayo Edwin, Gideon Gwadi, Toby Okechukwu and Adesegun Adekoya.

    It was a mini-road show as the Reps moved in a convoy of three coaster buses and 17 cars to the Abuja home of the chairman of the probe panel, Dr Iyiorchia Ayu, where the panel sat.

    In a brief remark before the committee went into a closed-door session with the lawmakers, Dr Ayu said: “Elders of the party are meeting and this is a family affair. This committee will take a decision in the best interest of the party.”

    One of the House members who accompanied Elumelu and his group told reporters that the decision to make Eleumelu the Minority Leader was collectively taken by an overwhelming majority of PDP members in the House.

    The lawmaker, who did not want his name in print, said: “This issue is not about Elumelu alone but about all of us. So, we are here to show our support for all of us, believing that at the end of the day, the party would be stronger.”

    Read Also: Suspension: I’m shocked, says Elumelu

    Other members of the BoT panel included Senator David Mark, Senator Adolphus Wabara, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and a former Deputy Speaker Austin Opara.

    The PDP leadership had nominated Kingsley Chinda, as Minority Leader; Chukwuka Onyema, Deputy Minority Leader; Yakubu Barde, Minority Whip and Muraina Ajibola as Deputy Minority Whip.

    Those that eventually emerged against the party’s directive are: Elumelu, Minority Leader; Toby Okechukwu Deputy Minority Leader; Gideon Gwani, Minority Whip and Adesegun Adekoya Deputy Minority Whip.

    The Ayu panel will submit its report to the leadership of the BoT within one week.

  • Rivers PDP to national leaders: don’t push us too far

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has warned some national leaders of the party not to push its members too far, as doing so would attract dire consequences.

    An official of the state chapter of the party close to the Rivers chairman, who pleaded not to be named, said some leaders and elders of the PDP at the national level had been commenting and taking actions capable of alienating the state chapter.

    The state chapter said its leaders and members have suffered and endured many things, warning that there is a limit to what anybody could take.

    “We have suffered abuses, but we have restrained ourselves. What the so-called leaders should know is that we are not keeping quiet for want of what to do. If they continue, we will react,” the official said.

    The party chieftain spoke against the backdrop of the crisis in the party over the choice of the minority leader of the House of Representatives.

    Read Also: No plans for reaffirmation, says Kogi PDP

    The state PDP and some national leaders preferred Kingsley Chinda. Others backed the choice Ndudi Elumelu.

    Without alluding directly to the crisis, the Rivers PDP chieftain warned that if its leaders and members were pushed to the wall, they would make a statement through a reaction that would not be good for the PDP.

    The state PDP chapter said: “Despite the sacrifices and contributions its members and leaders made for the success of the party in the last elections and during the crisis that engulfed the national body, some party leaders and elders are treating them unpleasantly.”

    The party said “it would be in the best interest of the PDP if there is mutual respect and appreciation of everybody’s contribution.”

  • Protest as Dickson unveils preferred governorship aspirants 

    BAYELSA State Governor Seriake Dickson drew the ire of residents and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following a statement containing names of his preferred aspirants for his party’s primary election ahead of the November governorship poll.

    Dickson’s political family, the Restoration Caucus of the PDP, in a statement by the governor’s Special Adviser, Feynman Wilson, named only three persons as members of the caucus that had indicated interest to pick the governorship forms.

    They are the Chief of Staff, Government House, Talford Ongolo, Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Kemela Okara and the Senator representing the Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, Senator Douye Diri.

    But no sooner had the government released the names that residents took to their social media platforms to criticise and reject the governor’s choice.

    The residents, especially members of the PDP, described the three aspirants as unpopular and stingy, saying the party should be prepared to lose the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC) if it settled for any of them.

    Most of the commentators, who said they would not allow any stingy person fly the PDP flag, added that it was inconceivable for the governor to contemplate any of the three names as his successor.

    They urged the governor to drop the idea or they would be forced to vote for the APC.

    One of them, Onitsha Miepanmo, wrote: “Dickson is a good man and has a golden heart for the Ijaw People. He cannot afford to see Bayeslans suffer after his successful two terms in office. But I was shocked to see an official statement regarding the coming governorship election.

    Read Also: Dickson employs 335 professionals

    “The announcement of three aspirants as preferred candidate among so many vibrant aspirants inside the PDP that will continue the good works started by the Restoration Administration is uncalled for. I believe Dickson doesn’t have hand in these so-called stingy preferred candidates.”

    Ibifaa Princewill said the governor would play into the hands of the opposition if he decided to work for any of the three aspirants to become the PDP candidate. Collins Baker described them as “worst aspirants”.

    A known leader of the PDP, Tokpo Coronation, said none of the persons mentioned in the statement could win an election.

    But Wilson said following the release of the statement, the restoration caucus had begun the process for selection of the party’s candidate for the November 16 governorship election.

    He said the decision was taken in a meeting under the leadership of Dickson, following the successful conclusion of the three-day fasting and prayer organised by the state to seek the face of God.

    Wilson, however, added that indication of interest by the three persons did not preclude other interested members of the Restoration Team from picking their forms.

    He explained that all such members interested in the governorship would be required to present themselves to the party and the caucus for necessary engagement.

    Wilson thanked members of the Restoration Team for their steadfastness, discipline, dedication and commitment to the affairs of the party and the administration over the years.

    He stressed that the team, which controls over 80 per cent of the PDP in Bayelsa, was the only group that had the cohesion, strength and capacity to win the next governorship election.

  • Tribunal affirms Wike’s re-election

    The Rivers State governorship election tribunal has dismissed the petition by the African Action Congress (AAC) governorship candidate, Biokpomabo Awara, against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Nyesom Wike and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    The tribunal, presided over by Justice K. A. Orjiako, dismissed the petition on the ground  that it was deemed abandoned on the ground of Paragraph 4 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act.

    According to the tribunal, the petition was deemed to be technically abandoned because the AAC and its candidate failed to meet key procedural requirements as to applying for pre-hearing information.

    The three-man panel said petition number EPT/RS/GOV/03/2019 was incompetent and therefore, dismissed it.

    The tribunal also struck out applications by the AAC governorship candidate, seeking to be separated from all joint applications previously made with the party.

    Read Also: Wike: I’m not surprised by Reps’ action

    AAC recently adopted Henry Bello to represent it at the tribunal after its former lawyer, Tawo Tawo, withdrew from the case, with a notice of change of counsel filed the tribunal.

    This application came in after the AAC brought in another counsel to handle its matter at the tribunal.

    The three-man panel, after going through arguments in the Awara/AAC suit against Wike, ruled that all applications by the first petitioner (Tawo Tawo, former AAC counsel) are struck out.

    Ojiako noted that the application by the petitioner (counsel for Awara; Mustafa Ibrahim) has been found to be an abuse of court process. The panel also struck out the application filed by the petitioner for pre-hearing of the matter.

  • Minority officers crisis: Edwin Clark urges PDP to be peaceful

    ELDER statesman and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Edwin Clark has called for truce in the intra-party triggered by the the emergence of minority leadership in the House of Representatives.

    Clark urged his party, the PDP to face issues of national interests as the main opposition party and allow peace to reign in the Ninth Assembly.

    In a chat with reporters on Sunday in Abuja, Clark said that the tussle was unnecessary, advising the PDP to accept Ndudi Elumelu as announced by House of Representatives Speaker Gbajabiamila as the Minority Leader.

    The PDP had on Friday suspended Elumelu and six other members of House of Representatives for one month over their alleged involvement in the crisis.

    Other suspended members are: Wole Oke, Lynda Ikpeazu, Anayo Edwin, Gideon Gwadi, Toby Okechukwu and Adekoya Abdul-Majid.

    Clark said that there were major issues in the country that PDP should concern itself with.

    The Ijaw leaders said: “I believe that if there are about 141 opposition members in the House of Representatives and 121 of them belong to PDP, the other 20 members are members of the House and they must be consulted.

    “So, if the members of the House who are in opposition all agree that this is what we want to do, I will appeal to PDP to face larger problems in this country.

    “Ruga is there and there are many other things in this country that are going wrong. PDP should play the role of opposition effectively in those areas and leave this matter. It is done.

    “If the Speaker has already announced that this is the Minority Leader now there is nothing anyone can do.  Otherwise, you want to create problem in the House which should not be.

    “So, I am advising the PDP leadership now that they have suspended them for a month, that may be enough sanction. Allow what has happened in the House to go on. They are all members of the PDP.”

    Clark urged that democracy should be allowed to prevail and institutions should be allowed to do their jobs in the country.

    The elder statesman said that there was no place even in the PDP constitution which says it should nominate people and forward to the House, saying “the National Assembly has its rules and regulations.

    He went further that “Rule 8 of the NASS, I think, says that elected members of the House whether they are majority or minority should sit among themselves and elect their members.

    Read Also: Police probe illegal raid on Edwin Clark’s residence

    “They did not say that one political party should nominate people for the chairman or secretary to come and submit to NASS.

    “I don’t think there is anything like that. But the party has to be in the know, I agree. But the whole thing that happened, we should be thinking about major things.”

    He said that the PDP established the precedent in the Seventh National Assembly, when the speakership position was zoned to the Southwest and Aminu Tambuwal, Northwest contested and won, against the wish of the party.

    He said: “Everyone of one of us went to the House, including PDP Board of Trustees chairman, the late Chief Tony Anenih, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and many PDP members were there and election was conducted among the lawmakers.

    “Mulikat Akande, who was the party’s choice agreed to contest and PDP allowed the elections to go on and the end, Tambuwal won and Emeka Ihedioha became his deputy. Heavens did not fall.

    “Commonsense prevailed and they moved on but again, that was the beginning of the problem of the PDP. When at the end of it, Tambuwal for reasons best known to him defected.”