All may not have been heard on the controversial decision of a group of seven governors and supporters led by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to form a parallel Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as more facts have emerged on the real reasons the group staged a walk-out at the party special national convention held at Eagles Square Abuja last weekend.
A key member of the group and former minister who yesterday spoke to Nigerian Pilot on condition of anonymity said the group felt humiliated by the decision of the party leadership to sideline serving governors at the convention.
“By right, state governors are leaders of the party at the state level just like President Goodluck Jonathan is the national leader of the party. But at the convention, Dr. Bamanga Tukur and his executive sidelined state governors and appointed cronies to be leaders of some state delegates.”
“Take for instance, the minister of national planning, Dr. Shamsudden Usman was appointed leader of the Kano delegate in place of the state governor, Dr. Musa Rabiu Kwankwanso. In Enugu State, because of the political interest of deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, the state governor, Barr. Sullivan Chime and his deputy were denied accreditation and were therefore absent, paving way for one of Ekweremadu’s supporters to lead the state contingent. Is that proper? Is that the kind of party we all founded? Is that what democracy entails?” she asked.
The party plunged further into serious crisis on Monday after a reconciliation effort by President Goodluck Jonathan and governors, including members of the break-away group on Sunday night failed to bring back to the party’s fold the splinter group which now insists it is the legitimate PDP.
The faction, which elected Alhaji Abubakar Baraje as its national chairman and supported by seven governors, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and more than three dozen serving federal lawmakers, on Monday asked a Lagos court to dissolve the PDP executive led by Dr. 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, brushing aside the Tukur-led party recognised and backed by President Jonathan.
Coming amid intense efforts by the president 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 signaled the party was up for even more turbulent days ahead as it struggled to mend its fractured ranks.
Another reason that contributed to the emergence of the splinter group, Nigerian Pilot gathered, was what sources described as the uncoordinated and shabby manner the party carried out its accreditation exercise with most of those suspected to be anti-Tukur and the presidency allegedly denied accreditation to the convention. Some of them, we gathered, were only giving ‘observer status,’ which meant they can only attend but will not vote.
It was also gathered that many of the aspirants to various vacant positions in the party were displeased with the screening exercise conducted by the party’s screening committee.
Those who were screened out were said to have no knowledge of why they were disqualified more so as they were not given opportunity to appeal as the results were announced at the convention arena.
In fact, Nigerian Pilot was told that even the chairman of the Election Panel and former Senate president, Dr. Ken Nnamani was embittered by the way the party