PDP ChairmanTukur here by say 21-month tenure of crises

Africtv - Mail Summary...

• The crises rocking the ruling party since Alhaji Bamanga Tukur became the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) started as soon as he mounted the saddle.
• Tukur was said to be preparing the ground for one of his sons, Anwal to clinch the governorship ticket of the PDP. Nyako was believed to be projecting his anointed candidate for the position ahead of the 2015 general elections.

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Tukur, who emerged chairman of the ruling party at the March 24, 2012 national convention of the PDP, started courting trouble the moment he assumed office.

Just a few weeks after his inauguration as chairman, Tukur engaged Governor Murtala Nyako of his native Adamawa State in muscle flexing over control of the party machinery in the state.

Tukur was said to be preparing the ground for one of his sons, Anwal to clinch the governorship ticket of the PDP. Nyako was believed to be projecting his anointed candidate for the position ahead of the 2015 general elections.

By the time the dust settled, two parallel executive committees had emerged in the state. One faction, loyal to Nyako, was led by Alhaji Lawal Mijinjuwa. Joel Madaki held tenaciously to another faction.

Using his might as the national chairman, Tukur had sacked the Mijinjuwa-led faction and gave recognition to the Madaki led group, a development that set the stage for the irreconcilable differences between him and the governor.

While Tukur claimed that the decision to replace the Mijijunwa led executive with Madaki’s was a joint decision of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), the NWC members had washed their hands of the matter. According to them, the decision to sack the Adamawa Exco was unilaterally taken by Tukur.

The brief suspension of Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State also contributed to the opposition to Tukur’s leadership style. The reason given by the party’s national leadership for suspending the governor was that he failed to pick the chairman’s telephone calls.

Other state chapters like Rivers, Sokoto, Kwara, Kano also had their state executive committees sacked by the party leadership under Tukur.

The persistent crisis in the Southwest zone of the PDP has also been blamed on the way and manner Tukur handled the various disagreements among stakeholders in the zone.

Tukur ensured that all zonal national officers were eased out of their positions with former Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Segun Oni, Bode Mustapha and others sent packing.

The party is yet to conduct a fresh zonal congress to elect new leaders for the Southwest zone.

The refusal of the PDP to reinstate Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the National Secretary of the party also contributed to the hard feelings against the party chairman.

The Court of Appeal had on November 11, 2013 ordered Oyinlola’s reinstatement after he was ousted based on the ruling of a lower court. The the Tukur-led NWC spurned the order of the appellate court, choosing to hang on to the ruling of the lower court.

Similarly, the setting up of the National Disciplinary Committee chaired by a Second Republic Minister, Umaru Dikko was also said to have violated the constitution of the PDP.

Such a committee required the approval of the National Executive Committee of the party to operate. But the NEC did not sit to ratify the Dikko committee before the panel started its work.

Four erstwhile party chieftains were the first set of casualties recorded by the Dikko committee. Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, Alhaji Ibrahim Kazaure and Oyinlola were tried in absentia and recommended for expulsion by the committee.

The G-7 Governors also cited Tukur’s leadership style as one of the reasons they fell out with him. The governors had insisted on his removal for peace to reign in the party.

After months of prevarication by the Presidency over the matter, five of the governors had in November, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The governors are: Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).

Barely a month after the governors’ defection, 37 PDP members of the House of Representatives also defected to the APC. A number of senators elected on the platform of the PDP are also waiting to defect to the APC in the days ahead.

Twenty-seven of the 30- member Sokoto State House of Assembly have also joined Governor Wamakko to defect to the APC, leaving the PDP with only three members.

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