Obasanjo withdraws from PDP

Obasanjo withdraws from PDP •Writes
Tukur, copies Jonathan •PDP govs give
conditions for peace.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has fired
another letter, this time, to the National
Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in
which he gave a notice of his
withdrawal from the activities of the
party.

Obasanjo also sent a copy of the letter
to President Goodluck Jonathan as
National Leader of the party. A copy of
the letter was obtained by the Saturday
Tribune.

The former president, in the letter, said
he was withdrawing from all activities of
the party because the PDP had been
negating the principles of morality,
decency and discipline in its decisions,
especially as they affect the South West
where he comes from.

The letter, dated January 7, 2014,
according to a source at the national
secretariat of the party, was received in
the office of Tukur on Wednesday, 8
January, 2014. It is believed that
President Jonathan also got his own
copy on Thursday.

Obasanjo accused the party leadership
of imposing someone (names witheld),
who he described as a criminal wanted
abroad, on the party as its South West
zonal leader and proceeded to add that
he was forwarding with the letter,
“recent documents” on the alleged
activities of the person.

Efforts to get copies of the “recent
documents” by Saturday Tribune from
both the PDP national secretariat as
well as from Obasanjo’s side were,
however, not successful but a source at
PDP’s national secretariat confirmed
that the letter came with attachments.
He did not give further details.
The three paragraph letter reads:
“While I believe that a good and truly
national political party must be a
microcosm of the nation in its
membership, made up of all sorts of
characters from near-saints to near-
satan, I also believe that on no account
should a known habitual criminal that is
wanted abroad to face criminal charges
levelled against him be extolled as a
political leader in a respectable and
wholesome nation-building political
party.
“(...Names witheld) has been so extolled
in PDP in South-West geo-political zone
which I personally find unsavoury.

Politics played by any national political
party must have morality, decency,
discipline, principles and leadership
examples as cardinal practices of the
party. I have attached here recent
documents that clearly indicate that
your extolled PDP Zonal Leader in the
South-West zone of Nigeria and an
indigene of Ogun State is, to say the
least, not a credit to the party as a
member, let alone being a zonal leader.

“Since I stick in my practice of party
politics to the hallowed and cherished
principles enunciated above, I take this
opportunity to let you know that while I
continue to remain a card-carrying
member of PDP, I cannot and I will not
subscribe to a wanted habitual criminal
being installed as my zonal leader in the
party; a criminal for whom extradition
has been requested by the US
government. In the meantime, I will
consider withdrawing my activity with
PDP at local, state, zonal and national
levels until the anomalous and
shameful situation is corrected.”

A meeting of South West leaders of the
party, it was gathered, will hold in
Ibadan, Oyo State, today and may also
come up with far-reaching decisions on
the future of the party in the zone.
PDP governors give fresh conditions for
peace
PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP)
governors have given fresh conditions
for peace to return to the party and for
the chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to
remain in office.

Part of the conditions, according to
information gathered by the Saturday
Tribune, is for President Goodluck
Jonathan to prevail on Tukur to return
the structures of the party to them in
their respective states as well as make
them the leaders. Only after this would
they agree to resume adequate funding
of the party at all levels as well as its
national secretariat.

Part of Tukur’s ‘sins’ is his alleged
incessant interference in the affairs of
the state chapters, which is said to have
led to the setting up of caretaker
committees for some of the chapters.

The situation did not go down well with
the governors, who saw the action as
erosion of their powers as leaders in
their respective states.
The new development, sources close to
the governors said, followed the
intervention of some respected leaders
of the party who reportedly counseled
them on the implications of removing
Tukur now that the 2015 general
elections are around the corner.

Saturday Tribune, however, learnt that
the development had created a sharp
division among the governors, as some
of them are still insisting that the
embattled chairman must go as earlier
demanded, for them continue to be
relevant in the scheme of things in the
party ahead of the 2015 elections.

The likes of the governors of Jigawa
and Niger states, who were members of
the aggrieved G7 Governors before five
of them defected to the All Progressives
Congress (APC), and some others are
said to have insisted that for genuine
peace to return to the PDP and for the
party to maintain its supremacy come
2015 elections, there must be a
complete change of leadership.

However, one of the aides to Alhaji
Tukur revealed that the cause of friction
between Tukur and the governors was
his insistence that the party must be
returned to the grassroots, and that the
constitution of the party must be
followed to the letter to allow for due
process in election of candidates for
party or elective offices, rather than the
old order of imposition of candidates by
state governors without due process.