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The war of words between the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the factional chairman, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, continued yesterday as the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) dismissed Baraje’s claim that Tukur is not a card-carrying member of the party.
Recall that Baraje, in a statement over the weekend had called for the resignation of the former, saying Tukur is not a registered, nor a card-carrying member of the PDP.
Addressing journalists yesterday in Abuja, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh restated the position of the party that the Dr. Alex Ekwueme-led National Reconciliation Committee which submitted its report in 2006, gave a blanket amnesty to Tukur and others, hitherto expelled from the party.
However, Metuh said he was not aware that Tukur was at a time, expelled from the party. “I have checked the records to know whether it happened or not. To tell you the truth, I cannot recollect. I can’t remember whether it happened or not. Our position is that normally, if any such thing happened, it becomes a law in the party, except there is an intervening force.
The party scribe recalled further, “If it had actually happened in 2007, we set up an Alex Ekweme-Reconciliation Committee, which gave a blanket amnesty, a blanket waiver to all people, who had left the party or offended the party, or who the party sacked but free to come back. We wiped away every single thing and started on a clean slate as if nothing happened.
“So, what that means is that, even if it is true that the National Chairman or some other people were suspended or expelled by the party, Ekweme’s report gave a blanket amnesty to them and brought them back and restored them to their original positions”, Metuh explained.
He further said that with the exception of the Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, none of the aggrieved PDP governors could give accurate account of what transpired in the party from 1999 till date. “We have looked at the G7 or at these our aggrieved brothers, except the governor of Jigawa, we don’t know of any other person that has institutional memory to remember things that happened in this our party since inception. There is nobody among them that has ever been involved in party administration, except our former National Chairman, Baraje.
As for Tukur, Metuh said: “The National Chairman is a foundation member of this party and he is one of the founding-fathers. Apart from the Ekweme report, for the National Chairman (Tukur) to have campaigned and won at the convention ground and nothing like this ever came up, and nobody brought it up, makes the allegation completely immaterial of what they are saying at this point”.
Metuh, therefore, advised the G7 governors to declare their motive rather than engage in ceaseless demand for the resignation of Bamanga Tukur.”
“Are they afraid of Bamanga Tukur because he is moving the party forward? Are they afraid of him because he is a strong personality? Do they want the PDP to have a weaker chairman? Do they want a PDP that would not be supportive of the President as the leader of the party? The secretary queried.
“That is what we want to know. T hey should tell us why they are completely opposed to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur being Chairman of the PDP. We are worried about why they keep on harping on it. The more they shout at Bamanga Tukur, the more we cherish the Chairman that we have. The more we are proud of his achievements, the more we are more receptive to his ideas. So, they can continue pushing, Tukur is Chairman is in charge of the party and we are happy with him,” Metuh reaffirmed.
Source: Daily Sun Newspaper
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READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/49119.html
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