President Jonathan
BARAJE & TUKUR…when the umbrella provides no shade
Amechi
The floor of Nigeria’s House of Representatives was turned into a battleground Wednesday afternoon when its members returned from a six-week vacation in response to a letter from the Kawu Baraje-led splinter group of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) requesting to visit the House. The bubble burst when members of the faction of the party chaired by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur infiltrated an arranged meeting between the leadership of the lower chamber and the faction led by Baraje-led which was also attended by the faction’s seven breakaway governors known as the G-7.
When the meeting commenced at about 3.30pm,a member from Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Ofongo raised a point of order during protocols which offended other members. Hell was let loose as the offended group attacked Ofongo throwing ready missiles, including chairs, at him.
Ofongo resisted the attack, punching back at his assailants as some members in his support rallied behind him, shouting and clapping with such intensity that drowned Baraje’s voice when he began delivering his speech. Baraje’s presentation was further muffled by shouts of “Tukur! Tukur! Tukur!”
The lawmakers managed to maintain peace and order when House Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal mounted the podium to deliver his speech. But no sooner had he begun than the Tukur-led faction PDP lawmakers began chanting “PDP! Goodluck! PDP! Goodluck!!
Reading the letter, Tambuwal had revealed that the Tukur faction wrote a similar letter requesting a meeting with the leadership of the House and PDP Caucus but then withdrew it early on Tuesday morning.
The foregoing therefore implies that there would have been a clash of visit, had the Tukur faction not withdrawn its request for the meeting.
It could also have spelt an even tenser atmosphere, considering that the letter by Baraje’s faction, which was signed by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, abruptly halted proceedings and set supporters of both factions on a rowdy collision course for about 30 minutes.
On other matters, Tambuwal lamented the discouraging level of budget implementation, describing it as “a sore point of governance” that is way below expectation.
He announced that committees of the House would proceed on one-week oversight visit to Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA), after which the lawmakers passed a vote of confidence on him as proof of unity in the chamber.
Meanwhile, the Barajeled faction has denied striking any peace deal yet with President Goodluck Jonathan describing the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio as “deceiving Nigerians” with claims of a peace agreement.
In a statement made available to www.Africanewscircle.com, the Baraje-led faction said that it “wishes to inform Nigerians to discountenance the “tissue of lies and propaganda” from the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur faction of the party on the outcome of our meeting with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at the Presidential Villa last Sunday 15th September, 2013.”
The splinter PDP observed that they read various misleading accounts of what transpired at that meeting between those it called “the Progressive Governors – Gov Kwankwaso of Kano, Gov. Wamakko of Sokoto, Gov Amaechi of Rivers, Gov Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Gov, Nyako of Adamawa, Gov Ahmed of Kwara and Gov Lamido of Jigawa with President Jonathan on how to resolve the self-inflicted crisis in PDP.
The faction in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, urged Nigerians and their supporters to “ignore the concocted tales of Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Chairman of PDP Governors Forum” contending that “Akpabio lied by claiming that they accepted that President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential election and that most of their demands were being met.”
The Baraje-led faction of PDP stated that no agreement was reached on any of the issues they tabled before the President.
“The fact of the case is that no agreement has been reached on any of the issues we tabled
before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them” the breakaway PDP said
On whether President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential election or not, the party said PDP has a mechanism and system of electing their standard-bearers for any election and until the time to choose the party’s presidential standard-bearer comes, any speculation on that was just a “mere academic exercise”.
The Baraje-led PDP faction further held that it has been vindicated in their claim that Alhaji Tukur and his faction were not serious about their purported search for the return of peace in PDP.
“Just few hours after Sunday’s meeting between the Progressive Governors and the President, Tukur’s faction once more showed its disdain for peace by unilaterally setting up a Caretaker Committee to run the affairs of our Kano chapter. This was done without recourse to either the Leader of the party in Kano State, Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from Kano. This illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and was hurriedly done just to spite Gov. Kwankwaso, the Party Leader in the state.”
“We hereby urge our people in Kano State to ignore this illegality as we have set in motion the machinery to organise a proper election as stipulated by our party’s constitution. We are still at a loss why Tukur and his cohorts do not want peace to reign in PDP, but no matter the odds we are very determined to ensure that peace is restored to our party with the prayers of Nigerians. Along this line, we once more appreciate the efforts of our Party Elders to resolve the current crisis bedevilling our party and wish them success irrespective of the evil designs of Tukur’s faction to
elongate the crisis for selfish reasons”, the splinter group contended.
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