PDP FACTIONAL GROUP SCREAM!
‘Aso Rock is after our Lives’…Says “We’ve written our Wills”
- Laments: “We know why Jonathan is after Obasanjo, Atiku & G7”
- Presidency keeps Mum, Bamanga Tukur’s Camp debunk Allegation
- Tompolo allegedly plots to carry out Assassination–INVESTIGATION
BY KUNLE ATOLAGBE/ASSISTANT EDITOR, ABUJA
TO Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Africa’s biggest political party, crisis has become most troublesome name of the once-peaceful gathering of politicians in Nigeria going by several intra- political crises that is obviously over-heating the polity of the nation. Recent pronouncement by a break-away faction led by Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje of G7, a group of 7 Governors contending with Bamanga Tukur, embattled National Chairman of PDP has assumed a dangerous dimension with threats and sundry allegations of ‘assassination’ being made by the factional group.
Allegation by Baraje Faction
In an electronic mail sent to Naija Standard Editors in America, Eze Chukwuemeka, National Publicity Secretary of the New PDP alleged that “Baraje said it has received intelligence reports that the Presidency was putting finishing touches to what it calls ‘Operation Total Crackdown on G7 and their allies in the New PDP’, which is allegedly aimed to arrest and incarcerate its leadership without charge.
The factional PDP stated that “The reality, however, dawned on us after we read the interview of our friend and brother, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, in the in an online news medium of 26th September, 2013, confirming that President Goodluck Jonathan is under pressure to arrest former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar without any further delay. The sin of these two distinguished Nigerian statesmen, according to those plotting their “demystification”, is their alleged support for the New PDP, including the G7 Governors. That this evil plot is being conceived by the Presidency confirms that the Abacha days are truly here again with us”.
New PDP holds Emergency Counter meeting…ready to die for the cause
The factional group explained that in view of the seriousness of the plot to crack down on them in disregard of the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, the National Chairman of the new PDP, Baraje, summoned an emergency meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to brainstorm on how best to respond to the situation.
According to the statement, the splinter PDP resolved at the end of the meeting that they would not be intimidated for any reason, even if it means death, as they are fighting a just cause of “reclaiming, recovering and establishing our party based on the vision of its founding fathers as the party is currently usurped by some members who do not know how it was formed”.
The statement stated further that, “Baraje, knowing how dirty some of the hawks in the Presidency can fight when pushed to the wall, directed NWC members to write their wills immediately after the meeting as we have entered the stage of no retreat and no surrender – fully determined to reclaim what rightly belongs to us”.
The NWC urge also the G7 Governors that on no account should they be intimidated or frightened by any tactics or strategy employed by State Forces to coerce them to forgo any of the issues they have been asked to present before President Jonathan during the October 7th meeting.
His words: “Though it is sad that instead of employing diplomacy to attend to the issues that brought this conflict to bear the Presidency prefers to use force but we are not disturbed as we are ready for any of its tactics. In this regard, we wish to urge both the Presidency and those detailed to attack us not to waste further time or wait till October 7th to start arresting us as there are thousands of Nigerians ready to step into our shoes and fight this cause to its conclusion.
“We are convinced that at the appropriate time; Dokubo will join us when he is convinced as a Social Crusader the injustice we have been subjected to in PDP all these years so we are not threatened by his outbursts.
“Our stand is the same as that of late President of USA, Theodore Roosevelt, who once stated: “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is
patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
Disclaims Obasanjo as a non-member of New PDP
Still on his online message, Eze said “On a final note, we do not know why General Olusegun Obasanjo is being linked with the New PDP. Let us state unequivocally that this foremost
nationalist has not in any way – either directly or by proxy – had anything to do with our existence and operations. Ridiculing and plotting the arrest of such a distinguished personality that fought to keep this nation as one entity and contributed immensely in making PDP the most vibrant, virile, versatile and biggest political party in Africa as a nobody is not the best strategy to use to fight the cause of President Jonathan, who knows what Chief Obasanjo did to make him President in the first place”.
New PDP Baraje has described the judgment of the suit challenging Prince Oyinlola’s status as the PDP’s National Secretary as a “miscarriage of Justice”. Eze in shock claimed that the party learnt of the judgment by the Federal High Court Abuja, presided over by Justice Abdul Kafarati in the suit filed by the Ogun State chapter of PDP against PDP’s National Secretary, His Excellency, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former Governor of Osun State.
Tompolo allegedly plots to carry out Assassination–INVESTIGATION
Undercover investigation conducted by Naija Standard showed that the present alarm being raised by the faction PDP is not unconnected to rumors making-the-mill that Tompolo, a repentant leader of Niger-Delta, who doubles as Security Consultant to Nigeria Maritime and Transport Agency, NIMASA may have been discreetly contacted to ‘wipe-out’ the G7 members. There were allegations that this threat may have come from Tukur’s camp.
Presidency keeps Mum, Bamanga Tukur Laughs
Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power have not issued any statement on this latest allegation, but kept mum; while sources close to Tukur said the PDP National Chairman laughed off the ‘murder-plot’ of the Baraje group.
