Goodluck Directs Bamanga,PDP NWC To Resign Before Thursday

There are strong indications that President Goodluck Jonathan  may have  directed  the  National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party,  Dr. Bamanga Tukur,   and other members of the PDP National Working Committee   to resign.

It was gathered  on Monday that Jonathan  gave the directive  after  the  presidential committee on the PDP crises headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Anyim,  submitted  its report to him in Abuja .

The order and submission of the report noted that the party was drifting.

 A member of the presidential committee,  who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Tukur and  the other NWC members  would tender their resignation letters  at the party’s National Executive Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday in Abuja.

He said apart from the  PDP internal crises, the President  was concerned about  the position of the Independent National Electoral Commission on the  manner  majority of the NWC  members  came to office.

INEC had queried the affirmation method that returned  most  of the NWC members  to office.

 It was also  gathered  that the NWC members were told that they risked being sacked if they failed to quit before Thursday.

A PDP source said, “If they fail to resign before Thursday,  they will be sacked.” He added  that the Presidency had already directed that a caretaker committee  be set up in place of  the NWC.

When contacted, a member of the NWC, who wondered how  Jonathan’s  directive was leaked, merely said  it was true.

“How did the story leak? Yes, it is true. I am already packing my things from my  office, “ he said.

But another NWC  member, who also admitted  that  they would cease to hold office   before Friday, said,  “We are not resigning because President Jonathan asked us to do so.  If we resign, it will be  because of the report by INEC. We will be resigning to protect the integrity of INEC.”

A national leader of the PDP  confirmed the looming  dissolution of the NWC,  saying,  “You remember INEC had said that it does not recognise the election of a majority of them (NWC members).

“The fear is that one of those on the NWC could go to court and aver that the election that produced him or her was illegal.  Anybody could go to court on that score too. The party may have problem at that point.”

A member of the presidential committee which has governors Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Goodwill Akpabio, (Akwa Ibom);  Theodore Orji (Abia );   Isa Yuguda (Bauchi);  Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); and Gabriel Suswam (Benue),  as some of its members,  had said the panel was not pleased with happenings in the PDP.

He said, “Our report, which might not   please  the President and the leadership of the party, is that the party is drifting. We have told him not to allow the party disintegrate further because whether we like it or not, the party is drifting dangerously and we have to arrest that.

“We have put in the report that some actions of the National Working Committee  are repressive and unnecessary.

“We wondered why the party refused to hold its NEC  for about a year, which to us amounts to breaching of the party’s constitution.”

The party’s  constitution  stipulates that NEC must hold at least once in a quarter.

The panel, which also has the Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Ogiadhome; and the Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak, as members therefore recommended the immediate holding of the NEC meeting,  which has not taken place since July 2012.

The Board of  Trustees of the party  is expected to  meet in Abuja  on Wednesday.