There appears to be no end in sight for the crisis rocking Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the national chairmanship of the party as former political aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak has filed a court injunction to stop the planned National Executive Committee (NEC) meeeting of the party.
He also filed a motion to determine whether the continuos parade by Prince Uche Secondus as acting National Chairman is not contempt of court.
But there is tension ahead of Tuesday’s North-east Caucus meeting of the party as some aspirants from Borno State have been shut out of the race.
Seemingly unperturbed, the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC) inaugurated the Imo State Caretaker Committee of PDP on Monday and blasted President Muhammadu Buhari for describing the judiciary as the ‘major headache’ of his administration.
The PDP is scheduled to hold its NEC meeting this week primarily to endorse a new national chairman of the party as nominated by its North-east caucus.
Gulak had declared himself the national chairman of PDP after a court ruling in December, last year and an Appeal Court ruling which struck out a stay of execution by PDP leadership.
According to Gulak’s spokesman Bernard Mikko, who displayed the papers, he said Gulak has “gone to Court of Appeal to restrain PDP from holding any meeting of NEC presided over by the National Secretary, Prof Wale Oladipo, Deputy National Chairman Uche Secondus or any other person for that matter.”
Meanwhile, party stalwarts and the PDP leadership in the North-east will meet today in Gombe to nominate and send to the National Secretariat in Abuja, a replacement from the region, but some aspirants from Borno and Gombe states have been excluded from the exercise.
Addressing newsmen Monday in Abuja, Alhaji Aminu Yakudima, a foundation member and first national director of administration of PDP, who is also from the North-east, said out of the 10 aspirants for the position, only seven were invited for the meeting. He said two from Borno State and one from Gombe State were shut out of the meeting.
He said Alhaji Gambo Lawal and Barrister Ibrahim, both from Borno State, declared their intention to run but were not invited while A. Y. Gombe from Gombe State was also not among the aspirants to know their fate today.
Yakudima, national secretary of a pro-democracy group Positive Contact Initiative (PCI), said the exclusion does not reflect the spirit of love and affection for Borno people, adding that the process had to be free, fair and all-inclusive to ensure that whoever emerges will reflect the will of party members.
Yakudima, who lampooned Ahmed Gulak for declaring himself as PDP national chairman, said only the National Executive Committee (NEC) has the power to convene a national convention for a national chairman to emerge.
“We also appreciate the effort of the national vice chairman North-east zone, Senator Girgiri Lawal for summoning a meeting of the North-east zone for executive committee meeting (Tuesday) with a view to nominating one out of the 10 people from the zone to fill in the vacancy of national chairman.
“In the notice of extra-ordinary meeting issued by Senator Girgiri Lawal as published in Daily Trust of Friday January 29, 2016, he invited seven aspirants to the meeting (today) and left out three. We don’t know the reason he has left out the three. But we are appealing that the meeting should be conducted squarely based on the provisions of the PDP constitution and the nomination should be done with all seriousness.”
Meanwhile, speaking during the inauguration of the Caretaker Committee of Imo State PDP in Abuja, Acting Chairman of the party Uche Secondus said Buhari’s comment is a direct affront to the independence of the judiciary.
His words: “We express worry at the attacks on the judicial arm of government because we are aware that they are intended to blackmail and stampede the judiciary to deliver judgments against the PDP in various pending cases involving our party and some of our leaders in the courts.
“While we urge the judiciary to ensure that it adequately guards its flanks from all external influences, we also caution the executive to focus on governance, while respecting the constitutionally guaranteed principle of separation of powers by allowing the judiciary and the legislature, indeed, all statutory arms of government to freely operate within the bounds provided by our laws”.
He charged the 15-man committee chaired by Vitalis Okafor to be fair, just and balanced, accommodate every interest and restore Imo PDP to its winning ways.
-Leadership