City Reporters Newspaper reports:

"The breakaway faction of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) otherwise known as the New PDP has said that five more state governors, some National Assembly members and former governors have dumped the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP and have since indicated their interest to join the nPDP.

The splinter group said it has therefore constituted a committee for the reception of the new entrants into its fold.
The group in a statement made available to journalists and signed by it national publicity secretary, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, yesterday, said the National Working Committee (NWC) of the nPDP held its monthly meeting at the weekend in Abuja to review developments and chart the way forward for the party.

He added that the meeting, which was presided over by the faction’s national chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje, also set up a 6-man Reception Organising Committee saddled with the responsibility to set in motion the reception in honour of the five more unnamed serving governors, ex-governors, “key” National Assembly members and others it described as “Nationalists” of the PDP who, according to him, have decided to join the faction.

The Committee is headed by the National Vice Chairman of the faction, Sam Jaja with the National Organising Secretary Nasir Isa Abubakar as the Secretary of the Committee. Other members include the National Treasurer Abubakar G. Umar, the Women Leader Binta Masi Garba, the Youth Leader Timi Frank, and the National Public Secretary Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze. The statement said the Committee was directed to submit for immediate consideration by the G-7 Governors, the venue, logistics and modalities for the reception.

Meanwhile, the nPDP said it has appointed its National Organising Secretary, Nasir Isa Abubakar, to replace Olagunsoye Oyinlola as its National Secretary in acting capacity pending further directives from the G-7 Governors and the its Caucus.
Oyinlola’s Reinstatement. Recall that Oyinlola has been reinstated as the validly elected National Secretary of the Tukur-led PDP by an Appeal Court ruling last Wednesday.

The nPDP said it welcome the development and after considering the expert opinion of its Legal Adviser, Barr. Eric Opia, it decided that Oyinlola does not need any other oath of office to return to work as the party’s National Secretary as he subscribed to PDP’s oath of office alongside other members of the NWC that were sworn-in at the Eagle Square on March 24, 2012, saying that has also been the position of INEC which monitored the said National Convention “The nPDP NWC is therefore of the view that Prince Oyinlola should resume office immediately without waiting for any directive from any quarters. Any other person who parades himself as the National Secretary of PDP should be committed to prison for contempt of court,” the nPDP said.

The splinter said its NWC commended and congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan by once again improving on his democratic credentials by “directing” for the immediate reinstatement of Oyinlola as the duly elected National Secretary of the party not minding the plots by “some undemocratic” within the system, who want to portray the PDP in bad light. It alleges that some persons are trying to lure the South-West PDP to write a petition against Oyinlola and use it to invite him to the Umaru Dikko’s Disciplinary Committee, which the nPDP further alleges will be used to suspend Oyinloa.

“ To us this plot apart from being childish exposes Tukur and his cohorts as true enemies of PDP and the force behind the continuous crisis in the party which they don’t want its end because of their myopic and selfish goals but thank God for the intervention of President Jonathan to end this undesirable macabre dance,” it said.

The group also said it welcomed the initiative of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Jonathan, Sambo Dasuki, to further broker peace amongst the G-7 Governors, PDP and the Presidency “knowing the implication of the continued crisis on governance and the security of the nation.”

It said the NSA has once again by this act demonstrated that he is a statesman unlike some of the “hawks” in the Presidency who prefer that the crisis in the party continues, saying some against reconciliation are deceiving the President into thinking that they love him more than those in the nPDP while they are actually engineering his political misfortune.

It added that: “NWC commended the nPDP leadership, including both the Caucus and NWC members, for turning the party into the beautiful bride of Nigerian politics in view of the fact that we hold the key to decide the next President of Nigeria come 2015. The NWC considered other options in case our talks with President Jonathan fail to produce the desired result and concluded that our door should be opened to the APC option, while not ruling out other options that would give us the leverage in reshaping the polity come 2015.”"