Abubakar Baraje
Members of the New Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday alleged that they were being persecuted by agents of the Federal Government.
They said the agents had been using “unconstitutional means” to achieve their selfish goals.
In a statement made available hours before the seven rebel governors in the New PDP and other leaders of the group met in Abuja on Sunday evening, they gave examples of how the agents had in the past few weeks been using a well co-ordinated and systematic plot to traumatise, annihilate and cripple them economically and politically.
The statement by their National Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, added that the acts amounted to flagrant disregard for Chapter IV, Section 33 – 45 of the 1999 Constitution that guarantees “our fundamental human rights as Nigerians.”
A part of the statement reads , “Contrary to the provisions of Chapter IV Sections 42, 43 and 44 of the 1999 Constitution which guarantee our rights as Nigerians to acquire and own property in any part of the country, our national secretariat and most of our state secretariats have been sealed off by the Police on the orders of those in power.
“This is despite the fact that we still have a court case against Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the National NWC of the PDP.
“Two weeks ago, the Federal Capital Territory Administration in its overzealous effort to please President Goodluck Jonathan marked our closed national secretariat for demolition on the laughable excuse that it was originally approved as a residential building.”
It said before it acquired the house, it was being used by another political party, the National Democratic Party as its national secretariat without the FCTA complaining that it was against the Abuja Master Plan.
The group also named the sealing off of the Adamawa State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja as one of the negative actions taken by the government.
The lodge was being used as temporary national secretariat of the New PDP when it was sealed off by the FCTA on the same excuse of violating the Abuja master plan.It has however been reopened.
Besides, the New PDP mentioned Kwakwanso , Senator Aisha Al-Hassan, Saraki, Danjuma Goje, Rotimi Amaechi and Abubakar Baraje, as some of its leaders who have suffered humiliation from the government.
It added that the government was already using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to hound many of its members.
The New PDP said, “ Mr. Timipre Sylva, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, and Saraki are two foremost examples.
“We understand that the worst is yet to come as this unserious organ masquerading as an anti-graft agency would soon be unleashed on all our key members in both the Senate and House of Representatives in an operation code-named ‘Operation Coerce Them Back to Tukur.’
“On its part, the Nigeria Police, which has abysmally failed to find a solution to the menace of Boko Haram, kidnapping, assassination and other criminal acts ravaging the country, has been given a fresh mandate to frame up our members and term them criminals in order to keep them at bay.”
The factional PDP therefore appealed to Jonathan “to be a statesman and caution these dogs of war before they do irreversible damage to our dear country.”
The Baraje-led faction of the ruling party was to meet 8pm on Sunday at the Sokoto Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja but had to shift the venue to Kano State Governor’s Lodge out of suspicion that the police might storm the venue.
At the Kano State Governor’s Lodge,also in Abuja, they discussed briefly and rose without issuing a statement. Eze however assured that that would be done on Monday(today).
Two of the seven rebel governors in the New PDP – Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and Aliyu Babangida of Niger – were absent.
Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa; Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State; Kwakwanso; Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, and Amaechi were however present.
A source at the meeting said, “The members of the group were aware that policemen could be asked to storm the venue (Sokoto Governor’s Lodge) of the meeting That was why we decided to relocate to another venue (Kano Governor’s Lodge).
“But at the end of the day, we had a useful deliberation and I can tell you that we reached some meaningful conclusions. Those conclusions would be made known to Nigerians soon.”
Also at the meeting were former governor of Kebbi State and minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration during the government of late President Umaru Yar’adua, Senator Adamu Aliero; former governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki; former governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje; Former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu; Baraje; the Deputy Chairman, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja; the Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; National Vice-Chairman, North -West, Ibrahim Kazuare; Kassim Shettima, among others.
It was the first time the group would be meeting since a Federal High court sitting jn Abuja ruled that the Dr. Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee of the PDP remained the authentic NWC of the party.
Also, at the same time, the Independent National Electoral Commission had said the Tukur-led NWC was the one it recognised.
Another source at the meeting however told our correspondent that the faction was yet to decide on which of the political parties to defect to if negotiations with the leadership of the PDP failed.
He said, “We have agreed that we are not going to the PDM and that any political party we might defect to, negotiations with such party would be done collectively and not by individual.
“But I can tell you that we have ruled out the PDM. You can see that we are being pushed out of the PDP. We are going to be decisive soon on what we are going to do.”
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