… Threatens to back out of peace pact
By Emeka Nze
Abuja
A contestant for the chairmanship position in the forthcoming December 9 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national convention, Professor Tunde Adeniran, has accused the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of giving undue advantage to one of the chairmanship aspirants, Uche Secondus in the composition of the adhoc committees set to conduct the congresses that would produce delegates.
Also, Adeniran has threatened that anybody who undermines the effort of the South West at producing the next chairman will be doing so at his own peril.
Adeniran, who is one of the eight aspirants, jostling for the PDP chairmanship spoke yesterday through the Director General of his campaign team, Shehu Gabam at a press conference in Abuja.
His words:”The chairmanship of PDP must go to the South west. Anyone who underestimates the South west, you must be doing so at his own peril. By consensus, this chairmanship must go to the South west. Whoever emerges, so be it.”
The former Minister of Education also threatened to pull out from the peace pact signed by all chairmanship aspirants of the party should there be any attempt to derail commitment to a transparent convention.
According to him, some of Secondus’ supporters were favoured by the party leadership to conduct congresses to produce delegates for December 9 national convention.
“There is lopsidedness in the composition of the list of the adhoc committee that was published last week. A particular state has members in that list and some of them are the leading campaigners for Secondus.
“We, as campaign organization, were not consulted to bring one or two persons and I am sure other aspirants were not consulted too. So we find it very funny and realized that the spirit behind the signing of the MOU was not respected by the party itself, not the aspirants.
“This is not a very good spirit, this is not a good leadership. Nobody has the monopoly of determining issues. We don’t want to be seen as overheating the system but the party should be seen to be providing cohesive and strong leadership.
“From Rivers, they have Senator George Sekibo, Austin Okpara, Dr. ThankGod Danagogo, Chief Kenneth Ubani and in all this, you can see Emeka Ihedioha leading the campaign for Secondus on that adhoc committee list that was constituted.
“Now you have just one chairmanship aspirants having his men deeply entrenched in a system that would determine how the delegates will emerge.
“This is an indirect way of short-changing other aspirants and this is not good for the party. Any way, we were not part of it, this is what the party did and published on its own.
“The party should provide equal base for all aspirants and I want to say that we disagree with the composition of this list. If there is any attempt to derail commitment to a transparent convention, then we will not stand by that MOU we signed,” Gabam said.
APC dismisses allegation of complicity against Kachukwu, Usani
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State, Prophet Jones Erue, has berated the Niger Delta Coalition over allegation of complicity it leveled against the Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Uguru Usani.
The Coalition had in the recent threat by the Niger Delta Avengers to renew bombing of crude oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta region alleged that the duo were working in concert with the Avengers.
Erue, who spoke in Asaba yesterday, described the allegation as a cheap blackmail, stressing that the group may have resorted to blackmail following Kachukwu’s refusal to award petroleum products lifting contract to one of its founders.
According to him, the Niger Delta Avenger member plans to mobilise APC through the party Youth Leader for youth meeting in Bomadi. “I called the youth leader to stop that nonsense because the party will not take lawlessness in whatever form it comes.
“Since they could not get it from the back door, they want to attack their personalities. The party frowns at this and we will no longer tolerate it”.
“Through the Deputy Chairman of the party, Cyril Ebiye Ogordor, we immediately invited the self-styled ‘Ambassador’ to appear before the SWC.
“He flouted the order of the party because he knows that what he has done is standing down the truth, wanting to use a means to defame personalities from this region especially the Minister that represents this state in order to get something by blackmail.
“He has no such integrity as he claimed to have and we want the public to know that those who are working for the peace of the region shouldn’t be labelled as enemies of the region”, he said.
