Nigeria’s
ruling Peoples Democratic Party plunged further into crisis on Monday
after a reconciliation effort by President Goodluck Jonathan and the
party brass failed to bring back to the party’s fold a splinter group
that broke free on Saturday, and that now insists it is the legitimate
PDP.
The Abubakar Baraje-led faction of the
party, backed by seven governors, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,
and more than three dozen serving federal lawmakers, asked a Lagos court
on Monday to dissolve the PDP executive led by Bamanga Tukur, and
restrain its officials from parading themselves as leaders of the
party’s national executive.
The new faction said it represented the
legitimate PDP and announced plans to immediately inaugurate an office
in Abuja, and brushing aside the Tukur-led party, recognized and backed
by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Coming amid intense efforts by Mr
Jonathan and the party’s leadership to intervene in a crisis that has
terribly humiliated the governing party, the measures by the Baraje-led
breakaway faction signalled the party was up for even more turbulent
days ahead as it struggled to mend its fractured ranks.
A meeting between the president and the
aggrieved governors late Sunday, and a series of consultations that
continued through Monday, ended without success, party officials said.
The governors have accused the president
and Mr Tukur of “hijacking” the party machinery, imposing their
candidates as officials, and going after dissenting members including
governors such as Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers state. Mr. Amaechi was
suspended by the party.
At the Sunday meeting at the
presidential villa, the governors reportedly spoke “frankly” about those
concerns. An expanded talk, which will include former heads of state,
and former leaders of the party, is to hold on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the party, Olisa
Metuh, who was re-elected on Monday told reporters the party’s crisis
should be over by Tuesday after the meeting.
“Consultations on what happened on
Saturday and all issues therein are ongoing at the highest level of the
party in this country. We are going to take the decisions and the
reasons behind the decision after tomorrow’s meeting,” Mr. Metuh said.
But indicative of how speculative that
plan may turn out after all, the Baraje faction of the party on Monday
instituted a case before a Lagos High court asking the court to sack the
Bamanga Tukur-led executive of the ruling party.
The faction said in a statement by the
National Secretary of the new faction, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, that the
case was a demonstration of the group’s determination “to effect a
change and stem the slide of the PDP”.
Mr. Oyinlola named the plaintiffs in the
case to include himself, factional chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje, and
factional Deputy National Chairman, Sam Sam Jaja.
The Baraje-led faction, according to
Mr. Oyinlola, is asking the court to restrain chairman of the other
faction, Bamanga Tukur, its Deputy Chairman, Uche Secondus, Women
Leader, Kema Chikwe, and Publicity Secretary, Olisah Metuh and others
from parading themselves as members of the national executive of the
party.
They also sought a motion exparte asking
for leave to serve the defendants outside the jurisdiction of the
court. Parties are to return to court on September 9 for initial
hearings.
The legal action represented a
surprising twist for a party that has faced months of internal turmoil,
suspended two of its governors, sacked its national executives, and is
now tackled by two newly formed, but potentially formidable opposition
parties.
Governors of the platform of the All
Progressive Congress on Monday welcomed the new turn of events for the
PDP, and praised the “courage and resilience” of the seven governors who
staged a walk out from the PDP’s special convention on Saturday before
naming a new parallel leadership for the party.
The 11 APC governors said the splitting
of the PDP, and the emergence of a faction led by the party’s former
acting chairman, Abubakar Baraje, was a “necessary and inevitable result
of repressive rule of the PDP”.
“Recent events, first with the
orchestrated crisis in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), suspension and
expulsion of PDP leaders, including serving governors without fair
hearing and complete demonstration of lack of tolerance and respect for
different opinions are signposts of crisis that should unavoidably
result in the split of any organisation,” they said in a statement on
Monday.
The Baraje group said it was encouraged
by the “overwhelming support” from party faithful across the country on
its mission to “salvage the party”, and pledged a sustained campaign
that will enthrone “justice and fairness” in the troubled party.
“We also appreciate the efforts of
leaders of the party, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan and
former President Olusegun Obasanjo who, we note, have scheduled a
meeting of the party elders for this week,” the party said in a
statement. “We respect the elders and will be guided by them, even as we
stress that we will not abandon the ideals of justice and fairness that
gave birth to the new party leadership under Alhaji Baraje.”
By late Monday, more members of the PDP
had openly identified with the splinter PDP group. Twenty six senators
said in statement they were part of the new initiative to “reposition”
the party.
“By this decision that no doubt provides
a soothing balm that will calm frail nerves in the party, you have
written your names in gold and will be remembered in our political
history as men that stood to save the party and Nigeria’s democracy,”
the lawmakers said of the governors and Mr. Atiku.
Mr. Atiku had earlier come under attack
from the presidency which accused him of failing to protect a party he
was so “indebted” to.
“I was surprised because Atiku is
supposed to know more than another person that there is no party like
PDP. He left PDP and went to ACN and he came back to PDP, because he
discovered that outside PDP there is no party, so he had to come back
and he was even given the waiver to contest the primaries election in
2011,” Ahmed Gulak, special adviser to the president on political
matters, said on Monday.
“Atiku should be grateful to PDP. Atiku
is indebted to PDP and the best way to continue to pay the debt is to
protect PDP,” he added.
In his response, sent by his media aide,
Garba Shehu, Mr. Abubakar said he does not dispute the fact that he is
indebted to the PDP; but that the best way to continue to pay that debt
is to protect PDP.
“That is exactly what I am doing: Protecting the PDP,” the former vice president said.
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