The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, yesterday declared war against the breakaway faction of the party led by Abubakar Baraje and other members including the seven governors, who identified with the New PDP.
But in a swift reaction, Baraje described Tukurled National Working Committee, NWC, as a bunch of jokers, who are not fit to lead the party.
The Tukur-led NWC threatened to declare the seats of all persons elected on the platform of the party at all levels, who identify with Baraje-led new PDP, vacant.
The governors, whose seats were being threatened by Tukur-led committee are: Rabiu Kwakwaso (Kano), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Abdufatah Ahmed (Kwara), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers).
Other members of the party, Tukur is threatening to declare their seats vacant are the 26 PDP senators and the 57 House of Representatives’ members, who have declared their support for the Baraje-led new PDP.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Tukur, who declared Baraje, Atiku Abubakar, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Sam Sam Jaja and others as impostors, called on the security agencies and other institutions of democracy to regard them as such.
Tukur said: “Our reason for being here is to inform you without any iota of doubt that the Peoples Democratic Party has no faction and there is neither room nor reason whatsoever for such a claim under any guise.
“The PDP has only one duly elected National Executive Committee, NEC, under my chairmanship. I wish therefore to state with all emphasis that any group of persons parading themselves as leaders of NEC or any other organ of our party are impostors and I urge all Nigerians, especially the security agencies and other institutions of democracy to regard them as such.
“Let me state categorically that the PDP will not fold its arms while some undemocratic and unpatriotic elements destroy our common destiny by causing divisions and confusion among the people.
“Consequently, we shall ensure that any person who is not duly elected into any leadership position in our great party and has not been duly assigned any role but goes ahead to arrogate such to himself will be made to face the full wrath of the law.
“Similarly, all persons elected on the platform of our great party at all levels who identify with these enemies of the oneness and greatness of our party shall have their seats declared vacant as required by law.
“We shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that such persons and indeed any other individual who attempts to subvert the leadership of the PDP shall reap in full, the consequences of such actions.”
Reacting to Tukur’s position, the factional leader of the new PDP, Baraje said: “They are all jokers. They don’t know what party politics is. We are not surprised because he (Tukur) is ignorant of party politics.
“In any case, the process of declaring seat vacant or recalling members of the National Assembly back is well known in the constitution. To wake up and say he is going to recall people back or declare their seats vacant is ignorance. He is not fit to be called the national chairman of the PDP.”
Meanwhile, the President of the defunct Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahedeen Asari- Dokubo, once again took a swipe at President Goodluck Jonathan, stating that the Nigerian leader is a disappointment to the Ijaw ethnic nationality.
Asari-Dokubo said Jonathan is weak and unassertive as a leader.
The ex-militant commander, who was reacting to the latest crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which has led to the factionalisation of the ruling party, lamented that Jonathan could not take bold and courageous steps to tame the dissidents.
Asari-Dokubo, who spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondent, regretted that Jonathan could not act like a typical Ijaw man, who is famous for boldness and exceptional courage.
He asked the President to be guided by an Ijaw famous saying, “Ama Doko Doko Biokpo,” which he interpreted to mean “small, small towns but they are very courageous and keep hope alive.”
Asari-Dokubo said he was unimpressed by “what he called poor response” to the crisis rocking the PDP by the Presidency and advised Jonathan to emulate former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who confronted and dealt with the dissidents in the party during his tenure.
He recalled how Obasanjo allegedly wielded power to quench the insurgency led by a former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori, within the PDP, against his re-election in 2003.
To this end, he asked Jonathan to stop further peace talks and negotiation with the dissident governors and their collaborators, including Obasanjo and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
He said Jonathan only needed to sit up and demonstrate uncommon courage to subdue his political enemies, adding that the crisis was orchestrated to frustrate his second term ambition.
Asari-Dokubo decried the recent statement credited to Abubakar Gumi that the killings in the North would stop as soon as Jonathan renounced his second term bid, adding that the cleric and his co-travellers were cashing in on the weakness of the President.
He nonetheless expressed the conviction that the plot against Jonathan would fail.
He said: “Jonathan is disgracing the Ijaw people and people of the South-South by negotiating with these dissidents. I am terribly annoyed by the way he is handling this issue, he is a disgrace. If he cannot withstand them he should tell us because there is no basis for negotiation.
“This is the time for Jonathan to act like an Ijaw man and he should stop disgracing us.
“Jonathan should hit them and he should tell us if he cannot hit them so that we can help him to hit them mercilessly. I have the potential to hit them hard. It is on record that I once held Nigeria hostage and Nigeria could not produce oil for 48 hours and my activities forced the prices of crude oil globally to rise by $30 one day. It was unprecedented and I can repeat it.
“The plot against Jonathan will surely fail but the President should be decisive with these people once and for all. Jonathan should assert himself as President and put these people where they should be. Obasanjo, who is leading these people did two terms and he plotted a third term.
“There should be no negotiation with dissidents. It should be total war, no retreat, no surrender and let us see who will run first. There is time for peace and there is time for war. This is the time to go into war.
“Jonathan should know that this is the time for war and if he cannot sustain the war, we will help him to sustain it. How many governors attempted to frustrate Obasanjo? Ibori and others were united behind Atiku Abubakar to frustrate Obasanjo and they failed because Obasanjo was strong, assertive, decisive and courageous.
“Jonathan should be strong to deal with them but whether he is strong or not, we are ready to support and stand by him. It is not a one-man battle but a total war and they must be totally vanquished.”
Besides, Asari-Dokubo asked Jonathan to hand over the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, to the ex-fighters in the Niger Delta for a decisive action.
On Amaechi, he said, “Let the security men step aside and let us see how Amaechi can come to Rivers State. Amaechi should not be protected because he has betrayed the collective interest of the Niger Delta.
“Jonathan should be decisive and look at the other way and allow us to stand on the streets for 24 hours and we will see whether this madness by Amaechi will not end.”
Also, former Edo State Governor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, yesterday asked members of the splinter group of the PDP to join forces with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to unseat President Jonathan in the 2015 election.
Odigie-Oyegun in a telephone interview with National Mirror said he was excited by the crisis rocking the ruling party and urged the aggrieved leaders and members of the reigning party to consider APC as a viable option.
The former governor described the crisis as “a terminal ailment”, adding that the current situation in the PDP was a divine intervention in the affairs of the country.
Odigie-Oyegun hailed the dissenting governors and other aggrieved members of the ruling party, adding that, “the wise ones among them should as quickly as possible throw their weight behind the train of progress, which is the APC.
“They should move into APC and rally round massively with the first test case being the Anambra State governorship election.”
He stated further, “I have one major comment on the crisis rocking the PDP. My comment is that God loves Nigeria. The crisis is overdue and God has finally answered the prayers and cries of Nigerian people and He has decided to save Nigerians from the PDP.
“We have not seen the end and the crisis has not reached the bottom because it is a terminal ailment.”
Asked to comment on the chances of President Jonathan, in view of the crisis in his party, the former governor, who is also the National Chairman of the South- South Peoples Assembly, SSPA, said the well-being of the country surpassed the political aspiration of any individual.
Odigie-Oyegun, who clarified that he was not speaking as SSPA leader, said: “The chances of an individual in any election have no bearing with the destiny of a nation. Sincere effort to get Nigeria to forge ahead is not a sectional matter and it has to go beyond ethnicity and sectionalism.
“The rate we are going if we don’t salvage this country from the PDP, we are finished as a nation. If Nigeria is determined to forge ahead, we can no longer afford the misgovernment of PDP.”