PDP crisis festers as Tukur stops Gana panel

 

PDP National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur
| credits: File copy

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party took a new turn on Monday with  the  party’s National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur,  asking members of the National Convention Committee headed by Prof. Jerry Gana to stay action on the plan.

The decision to suspend the action of the committee,  which had earlier fixed the national convention for August 31, was taken at an emergency meeting of the National Working Committee of the PDP   in Abuja.

A statement by the Acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Tony Okeke,  said the NWC took the decision to avert a constitutional crisis.

Okeke also said  the South-West congress   scheduled  for August 24, would also not hold.

Gana, in company with the Secretary of the committee and  the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, had said on Friday that the two dates(August 24 and 31) were sacrosanct.

But Okeke,  in his statement, said   some  of the committee’s actions  were in breach of the  PDP constitution.

The statement reads in part, “The NWC,  at its meeting on Monday, July 1, 2013 thoroughly considered issues surrounding recent developments in the party and resolved as follows:

“In view of the anomalies and breaches of the constitution of the PDP observed in the actions so far taken by the Special National Convention Planning Committee, the NWC has directed the committee to put on hold all activities relating to the Special South-West Zonal Congresses and the Special National Convention pending the regularisation of the anomalies and breaches so as to forestall a repeat of the events that affected the party’s convention in 2012.

“Consequently,  the dates recently announced by the planning committee are in the circumstances untenable.”

Tukur has not hidden his disapproval  of  the activities of the committee since its inception.

For example, he refused to receive  Gana and Ekweremadu when they attempted to see him (Tukur) in his house on Wednesday because of the way the committee was handling its assignment.

Our correspondent gathered that Tukur did not  want majority of the former members of the NWC of the party, who resigned recently, to return.

Gana and Ekweremadu  were said to have begun moves to return the formal NWC to the PDP using the convention of the party where new members of the NWC are to be elected.

Twenty officers of the party, some of whom were members of the NWC, resigned from their offices during the meeting of the National Executive  Committee of the party on June 26 in Abuja.

Their resignation was as a result of a report by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which faulted the way the affected officers emerged at the May  24, 2012 national convention.

Tukur was said to have been happy with  the resignation and had  made up his mind  that none of the affected officers would return as NWC  members.

Apart from querying their loyalty,  Tukur was said to have confided in his close associates  that the former NWC members betrayed him  because they did not share his vision in the running of the party.

For example, he was said to have  expressed anger at the way all the NWC members, including the former National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, met and reversed a decision they jointly took on the state executive committee of the party in Adamawa State.

A close aide of Tukur said he was angry that some of the NWC members had penetrated the convention committee, thereby making it impossible for him (Tukur) to have his way in  his  determination to block their return.

The aide said, “The chairman wants a new NWC, because he has this notion that the last NWC members were not loyal to him and President Goodluck Jonathan.

“He, therefore, wants the committee to rezone the offices, which will make it impossible for the former occupiers of the offices to return. But rather than work in tandem with this arrangement, Ekweremadu and Gana went to the media, saying the former zoning formula would remain. That is the bone of  contention.”

On Friday,  Ekweremadu said that the zoning formula used during the “March 24, 2012 convention subsists,” but added that it would only be changed if it became absolutely necessary.

Apart from taking a decision on the convention, Okeke said the NWC at  its meeting on Monday, also discussed the crisis rocking the party in Anambra State.

He said the   PDP  “has resolved to invite major stakeholders in the state to an enlarged stakeholders’ meeting on  July 18  to commence consultations towards finding a lasting solution to the problems of the party in the state which will lead the party to a successful governorship primary election.”

Our correspondent gathered that the stakeholders, who are to be led by  a former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekweme, would also meet with  Jonathan a day before the meeting with the NWC members.

On  the  Rivers State crisis, Okeke said the NWC “also resolved to invite the National Vice-Chairman, South-South of the party,  to   brief it  before it can    take a  decision that will lead to a prompt resolution of the crisis in the state.”