We address you today as leaders of PDP, who are worried by the
increasing repression, restrictions of freedom of association, arbitrary
suspension of members and other such violations of democratic
principles by a faction of our party led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur .
While
we have done everything humanly possible to bring to the attention of
critical stakeholders within the party the dangers inherent in the
course being charted by that leadership, it has become very clear that
the desperate permutations towards 2015 general elections have blinded
certain people from the consequences of their actions.
Not only
has the constitution of the party been serially abused by Alhaji Tukur
and his fellow travelers, all the organs of the party have been rendered
virtually ineffectual by a few people who act as though above the law.
Unfortunately, it is obvious that that they get encouragement from the
presidency whose old calculations are geared towards shutting out any
real or imagined opposition ahead of the party’s presidential primaries
for the 2015 elections.
As leaders of our great party, we
consider it a sacred responsibility to save the PDP from the antics of a
few desperadoes who have no democratic temperament and are therefore
bent on hijacking the party for selfish ends. While the list of their
violations of the tenets of our great party is long, we will highlight
just a few:
The National Executive Committee of the PDP at its
belated meeting of 20 June 2013 approved 20 July 2013 for the conduct of
a special national convention.
However, that date was changed to
August 31 without reverting to NEC ( the only authority vested with
such powers) by a few people, apparently acting on the authority of the
presidency.
Notwithstanding the fact that INEC had noted that the
PDP congresses in nine states were not properly conducted, the illegal
delegates from such states are being paraded at the so-called convention
being held today in a cynical attempt to circumvent the law and further
bring the name of the party to disrepute.
In gross violation of
the PDP constitution which stipulates that the NEC meeting must hold at
least once in a quarter, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and a few people have been
running the party like a personal fiefdom without recourse to that
important decision-making organ of the party.
The NEC of the
party accepted the resignation of the former members of the NWC whose
offices were affected by INEC observations based principally on the
agreement that the affected officers would be returned to their
respective offices at the convention. However, against the decision of
the NEC. And in a not-so-clever bid to exclude some perceived opponents
of the few powerful members who are trying to hijack the party, these
positions have been made Open to some Yes-men within the party.
Notwithstanding
INEC instance that Senator Any Uba is the duly elected candidate of the
party in Anambra State and against the background that he is so
recognized by majority of our party members, the Bamanga Tukur-led
Executives announced a purported suspension of Senator Uba and some
other members close to him in defiance of subsisting court orders.
Despite
that the PDP Constitution is very clear that the state chapter of the
party cannot discipline a national officer, the Deputy National
Chairman, Mr. Sam Jaja, has reportedly been dismissed by some renegades
who have hijacked the Rivers State chapter of our party with the
connivance of the Bamanga Tukur leadership.
The persistent change
in the list of the party’s delegates in many states as part of a
deliberate attempt to rig the party’s nomination of candidates,
especially at the presidential and gubernatorial levels, with a view to
foisting on the PDP some unpopular candidates who are bound to lose at
the polls.
The suspension without due process of the Governors of
Rivers and Sokoto states. Even when the illegal suspension on Sokoto
State Governor has been lifted, the Rivers Governor remains purportedly
suspended for no just cause.
The illegal dissolution of the Adamawa
State chapter of the party is a clear abuse of power by Alhaji Bamanga
Tukur thus causing confusion in his home state.
No comments:
Post a Comment