PDP’s Moves To Humble Kwankwaso In Kano
22 September, 2013
“We have been
vindicated in our claim that Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and his faction are
not serious about their purported search for the return of peace in our
party.
Just few hours after last Sunday’s meeting between
the progressive Governors and the President, Tukur’s faction once more
showed its disdain for peace by unilaterally setting up a Caretaker
Committee to run the affairs of our Kano chapter. This was done without
recourse to either the Leader of the party in Kano State, Governor Rabiu
Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from Kano.
“This
illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and was
hurriedly done just to spite Governor Kwankwaso, the Party Leader in the
State. We hereby urge our people in Kano State to ignore this
illegality as we have set in motion the machinery to organise a proper
election as stipulated by our party’s constitution.
“We are still
at a loss why Tukur and his cohorts do not want peace to reign in PDP
but no matter the odds we are very determined to ensure that peace is
restored to our party with the prayers of Nigerians” These were the
reactions of Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, the factional National Publicity
Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after last Monday’s
inauguration of Kano State PDP Caretaker Committee at the party’s
National Secretariat in Abuja by Alhaji Tukur.
The Chairman and
Secretary of the 11-man Caretaker Committee, whose other nine members
will be announced later, are Hassan Kafayos and Andrew Musa
respectively.
They were immediately sworn-in by the party’s
National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwom while Abubakar Mustapha, the
National Organising Secretary of the PDP said other members of the
committee would be appointed later in Kano.
Tukur, while
inaugurating the committee, explained that the interim exco would serve
pending the conduct of a congress to elect officials to run the affairs
of the party in the State. Justifying the dissolution of the former exco
led by Alhaji Adamu Aliyu Sumaila, the National Chairman of the PDP,
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, said the tenure of the dissolved exco had expired
on August 15 and that there was need for a caretaker committee.
The
PDP National Chairman, who enjoined them to work with unity of purpose,
said the party would consult widely with all the interest groups in the
Kano before naming the other nine members of the committee.
He
implored the interim exco to take cognizance of the strong opposition in
Kano, pointing out that they should not be underrated. He also tasked
the committee members to ensure that they address grievances among
members in Kano and that the party must win the governorship election in
the State in 2015. He said the caretaker committee was set up in
accordance to the rules and provisions of PDP Constitution.
On
whether the state Governor Kwankwaso was consulted on the setting up of
the caretaker committee, the PDP National Publicity Secretary Chief
Olisa Metuh said that the governor had been contacted.
“The
governor is one of our best performing governors and so, we have no
reason to exclude him from the party. But in the same way, we cannot
exclude other persons, too,” Metuh said. However, pundits see the
constitution of caretaker committee in Kano State as part of efforts to
take over the control of party structure from Kwankwaso, who is
considered as one of the stumbling blocks to the purported 2015 ambition
of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sunday Trust gathered that with
this development, the party structure may be put under the control of
the ousted Minster of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman and
Ambassador Aminu Wali to weaken the influence of Governor Kwankwaso and
his loyalists in Kwankwasiyya Movement.
This suspicion was further
fueled by the return of Mohammed Abacha, son of former Head of State,
General Sani Abacha, to the PDP after leaving the defunct Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) in 2010 where he failed in his attempt to
contest for Kano governorship position in the last general elections.
Abacha
was warmly received by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) at the
party’s national secretariat the day the caretaker committee was
inaugurated for the Kano State chapter of the party in Abuja. While
speaking on the development, Mohammed said that his return was informed
by his realisation that the concept of internal democracy was practised
better in the PDP than in any other parties.
He said that he had
decided to forget about his political experience in the defunct CPC
where he was denied the governorship ticket in 2011. On reports that he
was being used to take over the party leadership in the State from
Governor Kwankwaso, Mohammed said: “Nobody is wresting power from
anybody because power belongs to God. We will do the little we can and
God will decide the rest.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the
PDP, Chief Metuh, at a press conference earlier, explained that
Mohammed’s return to the party was due to the reconciliatory work
carried out in the last few months. But in another twist to the
development, a former aide on special duties to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur,
Ahmed Shua’ibu Gara, has dismissed the caretaker committee set up by the
national secretariat of the PDP to run the affairs of the party in Kano
as dead on arrival.
Speaking during a press briefing at Kano
state NUJ secretariat, Gara stated that the party’s constitution does
not recognize a caretaker arrangement.
He said the Kano chapter of
PDP has shown so much responsibility and uncommon respect to the
constitution of the party by formally notifying the national party
leadership on 26th July 2013 through a letter with reference number
KN/PDP/ADM/08/13 that the tenure of the state party executives is due to
expire on 27th August, 2013.
He said the national body of the
party responded in a letter dated 22nd August 2013 attaching a timetable
for the conduct of a state congress and in it, the zonal offices of the
party was directed to oversee the affairs of the party in the State.
“As
I address you today, there is no communication or whatsoever from the
party superseding those quoted above, only for us to watch on television
that a purported caretaker committee is being sworn-in,” he lamented.
As
the political intrigues between the new PDP led by Alhaji Abubakar Kawu
Baraje and the mainstream PDP led by Alhaji Tukur continue, only time
will tell if the plots to humble Kwankwaso in Kano will succeed
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