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Sunday, 5 January 2014

PDP CAN’T HOLD CRUCIAL MEETINGS‏


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IT emerged at the weekend that the leadership of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has postponed
four crucial meetings of the party convened to
address a wide range of issues and challenges
facing the party.
Impeccable party sources identified four reasons
the meetings, originally slated for 6 to 8 January,
were shifted to 13 to 16. The postponement
decision was taken Friday night, leaving party
leaders scrambling to reach its chiefs across the
country.
In the same vein, it emerged why the party’s
leadership, in conjunction with the Presidency,
refrained from instituting new executive
committees in the states affected by defection of
governors in November.
A letter detailing the meetings’ dates, signed by
the National Secretary of the party, Professor Wale
Oladipo, was sent to former president Olusegun
Obasanjo who recently wrote an open letter to
President Goodluck Jonathan and over 100 other
top leaders in what a party source called “an
unprecedented step to stem the crisis rocking the
party.”
Sunday Tribune was told that the meeting was
postponed first to allow for better preparation as
the notice for the meeting was considered too
short and at a time many party chiefs were still on
yuletide holidays.
The second reason, according to insiders, was a
letter written to the party leadership by the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu
Tambuwal, where he was reported to have
solicited a shift in the date as he would be
representing Nigeria at a crucial event in Europe.
Another reason was the reported foreign
engagement of the chairman of the party’s BoT,
Chief Tony Anenih, who, soon after his birthday
ceremony, was reported to have flown abroad for
an undisclosed assignment.
The National Chairman of the party, Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur, who was ordered home for the
meeting, was also reportedly allowed to complete
his ongoing consultations with Nigerian and PDP
stakeholders in the United Kingdom. He is
expected to return home by middle of next week.
Sunday Tribune learnt that the Presidency
specifically wanted the speaker to be at the
meetings. There was the fears that the speaker
travelled abroad to avoid attending the meeting,
but it was said that the foreign trip was already
scheduled before the meetings were fixed.
It will be recalled that the speaker has been
variously fingered as a closet member of the All
Progressives Party (APC) and a presidential hopeful
in the 2015 race. According to PDP sources,
Tambuwal’s presence was critical as “we want to
confront him with growing evidence of his
affiliation to the opposition party.”
Concerning the G5 states, sources in the party
told Sunday Tribune that the PDP had been
unable to put in place a new executive committee
in Kwara as a result of the court case filed
sometime ago against the executive loyal to
former Governor BUKOLA SARAKI.
A source said that the leadership of the party had
done its homework on the composition of the new
executive committee in the state, adding that the
structure of the new executive had been put on
paper.
“We already have a picture of the new executive
that will take over in Kwara. But the court case the
loyal party men instituted against the executive
loyal to SENATOR SARAKI has stalled the
inauguration. We have told them to withdraw the
suit since it is now clear that SARAKI and his allies
have defected to the APC,” the source stated.
It was also gathered that the structure of the new
executive in Sokoto State is in the making,
following ongoing horse-trading between the
camps of the APC and the PDP.
The deputy governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji
Mukthar Shagari, has insisted on remaining in the
PDP and is expected to lead the party into the
2015 election.
It was also gathered that the PDP NWC is set to
leave the existing structure in Rivers State intact.

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