NEWS
ASUU Strike: “New PDP” calls for fasting,
prayers.
A factional chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, Abubakar Baraje, has
requested all members of the party worldwide
to embark on seven days of fasting and
prayers commencing from Monday, September
16 as one of the ways of resolving the ongoing
strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU.
Mr. Baraje said his faction decided to commit
the present logjam in educational sector to
God because it has proven too intractable for
the Federal Government to solve.
He said his party was deeply concerned by
the plight of students and parents due to the
continued closure of public universities
following the strike by ASUU to protest the
Federal Government’s failure to implement
the agreement it signed with the Union in
2009.
“Muslims all over the nation and abroad who
are PDP members should close their fast by
this Friday, 20th of September, 2013, at their
places of worship while the Christians should
end theirs on Sunday, 22nd September, 2013
at their places of worship,”. Mr. Baraje said in
a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
The statement, which was signed by the
spokesperson of the faction, Chukwuemeke
Eze, said it had become imperative to seek
the face of God over the lingering industrial
action considering that “all efforts to resolve
this unwarranted strike have failed woefully
and considering the socio-economic damage
this strike has caused both parents and our
children,” Mr. Eze said.
He said he was confident that their resolve to
go to God would succeed as the importance of
fasting and prayers could not ” be
overemphasized”.
Ashamed of the government
Mr. Eze said members of the faction are
shocked that the government inflicting this
monumental hardship on Nigerians is a PDP
Government popularly elected by majority of
Nigerians and run by a president who was
once a university lecturer.
He asked for forgiveness from Nigerians on
behalf of the federal government and assured
that the party would find a way out of the
“shameful situation”.
Sets up four-man committee
Mr. Eze also said the factional chairman, had
set up a four-man committee, under the
leadership of Governor Babangida Aliyu of
Niger State, to advise the party on the best
way to get the Federal Government’s
Negotiating Committee and the leadership of
ASUU to reach an agreement on the issues at
stake and therefore end the three-month-old
strike.
Other members of the committee are
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State,
Chinwo Ike, President of the University of Port
Harcourt Alumni, and Timi Frank, the faction’s
National Youth Leader.
Mr. Eze said the setting up of the committee
became urgent as reports reaching the
faction indicated that many of students “have
out of frustration and boredom turned to
prostitution, armed robbery and other vices
due to the prolonged industrial action”.
Police should unseal our secretariats
Mr. Eze asked the detachment of police
officers currently stationed at the faction’s
secretariat to vacate the property following
Friday’s decision by
a Federal High Court in Abuja which ruled that
the Baraje faction of the PDP should be
allowed to operate without any further
harassment or inhibition.
Justice E.S. Chukwu had in his ruling held that
there was no evidence before the court to
show any misconduct on the part of Baraje’s
faction as claimed by the Tukur-led faction,
which requested it to stop the Baraje-led PDP
from operating.
“We, therefore, wish to appeal to President
Goodluck Jonathan to save the Police from the
plot to ridicule it by using it to perpetrate
illegality such as sealing the lawfully-acquired
National Secretariat of PDP and our
Secretariats in states like Rivers, Bayelsa,
Kaduna and Kwara,” Mr. Eze said.
“The powers that be should as a matter of
urgency stop projecting and portraying the
Police as a tool of injustice and attack on the
perceived political opponents of Mr.
President” Eze. Said.
He said the faction would continue to use the
Judiciary to prove to Mr. Tukur’s faction that
the days of running the affairs of the PDP with
impunity and high-handedness were over.
He said the time had come for Mr. Tukur to
correctly read the handwriting on the wall and
honourably throw in the towel along with
other members of his National Working
Committee.

SOURCE: PREMIUM TIMES
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