Alh. Baraje Directs G7 Governors to Meet Jonathan, Calls for Tukur’s Resignation

Alh. Kawu Baraje led-factional PDP has directed the remaining G7 governors who are yet to embark on Haji in Mecca who include Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Alh. Babangida Aliyu of Niger State and Alh. Kwankwaso of Kano State to meet President Goodluck Jonathan by 9am on 7th October, 2013 in Abuja to formally obtain permission from Mr. President to shift the meeting date to a more convenient date pending the return of all their leaders from Haji operation.

The spokesman to the breakaway PDP Eze Chukwuemeka Eze made this known in a short online statement on the night of 6thOctober, 2013 saying, 'Shifting the meeting to morning period is to allow the mentioned Governors apart from Gov Amaechi to travel to Mecca later in the day of 7th October, 2013 for the Haji operation'

The nPDP noted that the latest was taken because of the plea by President Jonathan and the respect they have for his office.

In the meantime, Alhaji Baraje-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded for the immediate resignation of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur for not being a registered and card-carrying member of the party and has no business being its National Chairman.

The splinter PDP noted that Alhaji Tukur was expelled from the PDP in 2006 with nine others following disciplinary action taken against them for anti-party activities and since then, he has not officially returned to the party.

'All the records at our disposal show that Alhaji Tukur has not followed due process for his readmission into the party. He neither apply for, nor obtained the requisite waiver by the National Executive Committee of the party before offering himself for election into the office of National Chairman in 2012. This makes his membership incurably defective and his emergence as PDP's National Chairman null and void and of no effect whatsoever since he is the product of a flawed process' the nPDP argued.

Continuing, the nPDP said, 'All the actions he has taken as the Chairman of PDP since his purported election in March 2012, including the illegal, contentious convention of August, 2013, are null and void and of no effect'.

Rest of the statement reads:
'Reliable information reaching us from the PDP National Secretariat indicates that Alhaji Tukur is desperately seeking a way out of his predicament and has set about falsifying party records with regard to revalidating his membership through the back door. We wish to put him on notice that this is criminal and we hope he understands the consequences of his actions.

'In this regard, Alhaji Tukur's continued occupation of the Office of PDP National Chairman is clearly fraudulent, illegal and unconstitutional.

'We hereby urge Alhaji Tukur to tow the path of honour and throw in the towel. This is the best option open to him. However, since one man cannot hold the party and the entire nation hostage, should he fail to heed our advice, we would have no other option than to appeal to both the Presidency and the PDP leadership to ease him of the party in the most diplomatic way to avoid hurting him so much considering his age, zeal and commitment to serve the party by offering a Ministerial post to him. This is a good opportunity for the Presidency to demonstrate if it is serious about restoring peace and unity to the party.

'We hereby formally suggest the immediate recall of Alhaji Abubakar Kawu, who erroneously handed over to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the National Chairman of PDP, thinking he was a member of the party. This will enable Alhaji Kawu to organise a proper, unified convention that will usher in a duly elected National Working Committee of the party as early as possible to enable us face the business of positioning PDP as the ruling party come 2015.

'It will also pave the way to restore PDP's past glory based on the visions of the founding fathers of the party.

'A word is enough for the wise'.