Indications emerged yesterday that any moment hence, two of the aggrieved governors in ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State could dump the PDP and pitch their tent with the All Progressive Congress, APC.
This, according to sources, the declaration by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP that it would henceforth treat the parallel new PDP members as criminals usurping the functions of a duly constituted leadership of the party.
The APC leadership, it was gathered, has commenced the process of wooing some of the G7 governors to its fold and this move seems to have yielded results at the weekend following the judgement of Federal High Court Abuja last Friday which restrained the faction’s officers of the PDP from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
A reliable source at the weekend informed that Nyako and Amaechi might have concluded plans to join the main opposition party, the APC, as a way of escaping imminent humiliation from the PDP’s National Working Committees, NWC. It was further gathered that the other G7 governors may also follow suit following an alleged agreement between the APC leadership and the G7 governors that if they join APC, they will be handed over the party structures in their various states.
Last Tuesday, APC, through its Vice-Chairman, North-East, Umar Duhu, wooed Governor Nyako to join its fold. Duhu during his visit to Governor Nyako at the instance of the APC National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, described Adamawa as an APC state.
“Adamawa is an APC state. The governor, perhaps, might not be a card-carrying member of our party but all his supporters are members of our party. So Adamawa State Government is APCcontrolled government”, Duhu declared during the visit.
Nyako in his response then also expressed admiration for the APC and said he would soon make his pronouncement on whether to join the fold public or not. It would be recalled that the PDP-NWC, while reacting to the judgment of a Lagos High Court, which last Thursday struck out the suit instituted by the factional leadership of the party, said, “Any group of persons parading themselves as leaders of this organ of our party are impostors and must be treated as criminals by all and sundry.
“Henceforth, the leadership of the PDP will no longer tolerate or condone any meeting, utterances, press statements and/or activities whatsoever under the name, flag and colour of the PDP by any unauthorised person or group(s) under any guise.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had, also, penultimate week rejected the request of the Kawu Baraje faction to be accorded recognition as the duly constituted executive arm of the party.
The electoral body, in a letter by its acting secretary, U.F. Usman, informed the factional group that it would not accede to its request as it noted that the commission was part of the team that observed the March 24, 2012 national convention that produced Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as national chairman of the party, and the August 31, 2013 special national convention, where his position as national chairman was reaffirmed.
Leading members of the factional group are former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former National Secretary of the party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Governors of Rivers, Adamawa, Kano, Jigawa, Kwara, Niger and Sokoto states.
While speaking with the Sunday Mirror on the issue, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the party had not been officially notified that Amaechi or Nyako had joined the APC. SOURCE: www.nationalmirroronline.net/new/fallout-of-pdp-crisis-apc-awaits-amaechi-nyako-others/ |
