President Goodluck Jonathan has
overruled the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga
Tukur, on the suspension of the mini convention of the party.
Tukur and other members
of the National Working Committee of the PDP had on Monday asked the
members of the Convention Committee, headed by Prof. Jerry Gana, to suspend all
actions on the convention, which was earlier fixed for August 31.
The Gana committee had also fixed
August 24 for the South-West zonal congress before Tukur asked it to stop such
plan “until all contending issues have been regularised.”
However, the suspension order did not
go down well with the convention committee as its members, including the Deputy
Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, were said to have reported the
matter to the President.
Their complaint made the President to
invite Tukur for a meeting on Tuesday, where issues bordering on the convention
were discussed.
The President’s intervention
was said to have led to peace in the battle of wits between
the Tukur-led NWC and the convention committee.
Already, the President was
said to have directed that the convention date as announced by the
Gana’s committee should remain sacrosanct.
A presidential source, who was at the
meeting, said part of the deal the President had with both Tukur and Gana was
that “the special national convention will still hold on August 31 and the
South-West congress will also take place on August 24.”
In order to smoothen the
relationship between the Gana group and the members of the NWC, the President
will also have a breakfast meeting with all members of the NWC, including
Tukur on Thursday where more issues are expected to be discussed.
Apart from these men, some other
stakeholders from the party are expected to be in attendance at the meeting,
which will hold at the State House, Abuja.
But in order to appease the angry NWC
members, the President directed that the Gana Committee should allow members of
the NWC to chair some of the sub-committees in the convention committee.
The NWC members might therefore be
asked to chair some strategic sub-committees like Publicity, Protocol and four
other unnamed ones, which the source said were demanded by Tukur.
The source said, “Ordinarily, the
chairmen of these sub-committees and welfare and even election, are
supposed to be reserved for the members of the NWC.
“The argument is that these offices
have to do with the day-to-day running of the party and that those who have
been in the party’s top hierarchy should be allowed to man them.”
He said the NWC members were not
happy that headship of such sub-committees like “Publicity, which is supposed
to have been reserved for the National Publicity Secretary, was given to
another person by the Gana committee.
“Also, the National Organising
Secretary was not even mentioned as a chairman of any committee, while the
Woman Leader, who is the traditional person in charge of Welfare was merely
made a member of the Welfare committee. In a publication, Senator Ita Giwa was
made the chairman of the welfare Committee,” he said.
But the Gana committee was said to
have agreed to correct what the source described as “anomalies” that were
noticed in the chairing of the offices.
At the Tuesday meeting, Tukur was
however said to have been faulted for not allowing Gana
and Ekweremadu into his residence last week.
The two men were at the residence of
the national chairman of the party with a view to briefing him on the running
of the committee.
With these corrections put in place,
the Gana committee was directed to commence preparations for the August
31 national convention.
Efforts made to get the
reaction of Acting Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Tony Okeke were not
successful as he did not respond to the calls made to his telephone.
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Politics