The Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared that the Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC) is not ready for reconciliation.
The spokesman of the faction, Chukwuemeka Eze, in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, was reacting to the constitution of a disciplinary committee by Tukur. According to him, such a move would merely continue the witch-hunting of aggrieved members of the party.
He said: “By reviving the so called disciplinary committee at a time when the party leader, His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan, is busy holding peace meetings with the Baraje-led PDP, shows that he is working at cross purposes with Mr. President. Setting up the committee is an anti-party activity which exposes Tukur’s hypocrisy and vindicates our stand that he is an obstacle to peace in our great party.
“Tukur and his NWC members should be the first to appear before the committee for usurping the office of the National Chairman as according to it, Mr Tukur is not a legal member of the party as he did not revalidate his membership of the party during the 2011 revalidation exercise”, said Eze.
Eze also slammed the spokesman of the Tukur-led faction, Mr Olisa Metuh, for accusing Baraje-led faction of suffering from institutional memory loss. He described Metuh as mentally sick.
His words: “Metuh was referring to himself as he succeeded in exposing his ignorance about the party he assumes to be speaking for. For him to refer the Baraje-led PDP as people who suffer from institutional memory loss indicates that he needs to visit a mental health specialist for proper evaluation. How can any sound member of PDP describe a party that still has Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of the Federal Republic, as a member as not knowing the history and records of the party?
“Metuh need be reminded that Atiku Abubakar apart from being a principal member of the PDP, also recruited both Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Alh. Gambo Jimeta, Senator Silas Zwingina and Chief Joel Madaki, among others, to the party in 1988 through Chief Nat Yaduma.
“Maybe Metuh may not even know that it was Atiku Abubakar that rented and paid for the present National Secretariat of PDP for three years and paid the working staff salaries for three years. Most of the times those of us who labored and established PDP to its present level laugh when some on lookers like Metuh want to tell us about the history of PDP which was formed when most of them never contemplated joining politics talk less of joining PDP.”
