2 reps dump party for APC We‘ll declare seats vacant – Maduekwe
By Emeka Nze and Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
Following conflicting court orders by the newly constituted caretaker committee, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi and another by the former National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), has taken over its affairs, pending the resolution of the court cases.
And the impasse has cost the party two of its members in the National Assembly, yesterday, defected to the governing All Progressives Congress on the floor of the lower chamber.
Addressing members of staff at the Wadata Plaza Headquarters of the party, the BoT Chairman, Senator Walid Jubrin, said, the “BoT as the conscience of the party, is the only legal organ of the party to take charge in critical moments such as the party has found itself.”
Jubrin said the police intervened to seal the offices of the party during the crisis period to safeguard staff’s lives and property of the party, commending the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, for his timely intervention in opening the party for the workers.
He said: “You are aware that this place was sealed by the Nigeria Police, the reason was to keep the secretariat very safe. We, the BoT, have been asked under the constitution of the party, to be in charge of the assets and the liabilities of the PDP generally.
“It is in that respect that the Inspector-General of Police, having considered the importance of our constitution and having considered the importance of the staff of the PDP headquarters here, that this place be open and not only be opened, but is entrusted in the hand of the BoT.”
He assured the staffers that the BoT was making progress in resolving the crisis.
Jubrin further noted that this was not a time to apportion blames, but a time to solicit the cooperation of all, especially, the leaders and elders of the party, who he noted, were cooperating with them to resolve the conflict.
He also allayed fears of the BoT taking over anybody’s job. “We are not here to take anybody’s office. We are in our office is to ensure that we do our job.”
Justifying their presence, Jubrin said: “There cannot be a vacuum in the party; nobody has taken the BoT to court. Today, the BoT remains the only legal body now in the whole set up and that is why we are here to play our role.
“We are here to perform our duty according to PDP constitution, hoping that our problems will soon be resolved.”
On effort to reconcile aggrieved members, he said: “We have gone very far to resolve this matter, we are making contacts and consultations and we are not here to blame anybody, but to resolve the problem.”
He added that the party would be back to power, stressing that “PDP will never die, we are only on sabbatical and once the sabbatical is over, we are going to take over our leadership, we are going back in 2019.”
Commenting on the forthcoming Edo gubernatorial election, the process that would lead to selection of PDP standard bearer and also meeting INEC’s timetable, Jubrin said, “I want to assure that we are putting heads together with our lawyers, which will not last long. So, be rest assured that everything will be in order.”
Also underscoring the need for the staff to continue to imbibe the new party spirit, former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, said the party was poised to start on a clean slate as a born-again institution, having learnt from their past mistakes.
Mantu said they would apologise to Nigerians for the party’s failures arising from impunity and enjoined the staffers to also have a renewed commitment to their jobs with a changed attitude.
“That is why we need to apologise to Nigerians, the people who gave us the power. We must make sure that we do things differently as born again staff and leaders.”
Mantu thanked the party staff for their calmness throughout the crisis period and commitment in safeguarding the property of the party.
Meanwhile, the plenary of the House of Representatives was yesterday temporarily disrupted, following a dramatic defection of two members from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaker of the House, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, had, during the general announcement segment of the plenary, read the defection notices from Hon. Tony Nwoye from Anambra state, and Hon. Emmanuel Udende from Benue state, in which the two lawmakers separately cited factionalisation of the PDP as their reasons.
With the new development, APC which initially had 213 members now has 215, while PDP dropped from 140 to 138.
According to the members, since the PDP has broken into three factions separately headed by Ali Modu Sheriff, Ahmed Makarfi and Jerry Gana, they did not wish to belong to any of the factions and so the decision to defect.
While the members of the APC were celebrating the announcement with shouts of “APC, Change!” Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor, raised a point of order in protest of the assertion that the PDP was factionalised.
Ogor said, no recognised court of law had made any pronouncement that the party (PDP) had broken into factions, and so cannot be said to be so by the lawmakers, urging the duo to rather “vacate their seats and go back to their constituencies to test their popularity through fresh elections to see if they would win on the new platform.”
He was rather shouted down by the APC members on the floor, but calm was restored, and Speaker Dogara said there was no need to debate the matter as the issues of such defections would be handled at the party level.
Meanwhile, the PDP has threatened to declare the defecting lawmakers’ seats vacant, insisting there are no factions within the party.
Secretary of the BoT, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, who made the clarification in a statement, said: “It is important to clarify unequivocally, that there is no faction in PDP.
“There was only one approved National Convention which took place in Port Harcourt on Saturday 21st of May, 2016, which in accordance with PDP Constitution, approved some far reaching resolutions that had the unanimous support of those who attended the Port Harcourt Convention with subsequent endorsements of another PDP political meeting that took place in Abuja on the same day.”
He stated that the conveners of the Abuja meeting have since integrated their positions with the structures and resolutions of the Port Harcourt Convention.
Maduekwe also noted that “subsequent meetings of, first, Board of Trustees members, and secondly, meetings with Governors’ Forum, leadership of National Assembly and Former Ministers in PDP Government Forum, and a PDP Former Governors’ Forum, held, and decided to work together.
“Aggrieved members are being reconciled across the length and breadth of the nation. The rank and file of the Party have resolved to work together, and PDP has never been stronger than it is now since its entry into the honourable role of a robust and principled opposition.”
He further said that “any suggestion of a faction, is at best ill-informed and ignorant, and at worst, is part of a grand plan to decimate the only political platform today, that is ready, experienced and able to honour the nation’s invitation to have a credible opposition party that will hold Government of the day accountable and thereby strengthen and nourish our young democracy.
“Let it therefore be understood by those of our members in the National Assembly who may be tempted to jump ship, or have already jumped, that on the basis of clear decisions of cases decided in the Supreme Court, they stand the risk of losing their seats in Parliament if they went ahead with their latest indulgence.
“Our party will insist on a declaration of vacancy and subsequent elections in affected constituencies in the event of such misguided defections. The pattern of PDP electoral system all over the federation since the 2015 General Elections shows that where there is election arising from such vacancies, PDP will return a more credible and more loyal representative of the people, he said.
