Please i want every sound minded Nigeria to read the first letter "Before It Is Too Late", who wrote it, to who and why and the event that took place after the letter was wrote.So is better for Nigerians to see why a pot should not be calling a kettle black, cause i see here is just a trick by OBJ to absolve himself from whatever blame that was being labelled against him, not forgetting the innocent blood of the Odi people, the unconstitutional impeachment of Dariye joshua of Plateau, the killing of Bole Ige, Harry Marshal and host of others.

December 6, 2004

His Excellency,
The President, Commander-In-Chief
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abuja
RE: ANAMBRA AND RELATED MATTERS

About a month ago, the nation woke up to the shocking news of a devastating attack on Anambra State resulting in the burning down of radio and television stations, hotels, vehicles, assembly quarters, the residence of the state Chief Judge and finally, Government House, Awka. Dynamite was even applied in the exercise and all or nearly most of these in the full glare of our own police force as shown on NTA for the world to see. The operation lasted three days.
That week, in all churches and mosques, we, our party, and you as Head of Government and Leader of this Nation came under the most scathing and blithering attacks. We were singly and severally accused of connivance in action and so forth. Public anger reached its peak.

Recommendation

You set up a reconciliation committee headed by Ebonyi State Governor, Dr. Sam Egwu, and we all thought this would help calm nerves and perhaps bring about some respite. But quite clearly things are nowhere near getting better.
While the reconciliation team attempted to inspect damaged sites in Anambra, they were scared away by gun fire, further heightening public anger and disdain for us.

Bomb explosion in government house, Awka

On Tuesday, the 30th day of November, 2004, another shocking development – a reported bomb explosion in Government House Awka. Since then, the media, public discourse within and even outside of our borders, have been dominated by the most heinous and hateful of expletives against our party and your person and government. It would appear that the perpetrators of these acts are determined to stop at nothing since there has not been any visible sign of reproach from law enforcement agencies. I am now convinced that the rumours and speculations making the rounds that they are determined to kill Dr. Chris Ngige may not be unfounded.
The question now is, what would be the consequences of such a development? How do we exonerate ourselves from culpability, and worse still, how do we even hope to survive it? Mr. President, I was part of the second republic and we fell. Memories of that fall are a miserable litany of woes we suffered, escaping death only by God’s supreme mercy. Then we were suspected to have stolen all of Nigeria’s wealth. After several months in prison, some of us were freed to come back to life penniless and wretched. Many have gone to their early graves un-mourned because the public saw us all as renegades.

I am afraid we are drifting in the same direction again. In life, perception is reality and today, we are perceived in the worst light by an angry, scornful Nigerian Public for reasons which are absolutely unnecessary.
Mr. President, if I write in this vein, it is because I am deeply troubled and I can tell you that an overwhelming percentage of our party members feel the same way though many may never be able to say this to you for a variety of reasons.

But the back stops at your table and in my position, not only as Chairman but also as an old friend and loyal defender of your development programmes which I have never stopped defending, I dare to think that we can, either by omission or commission allow ourselves to crash and bring to early grief, this beautiful edifice called democracy.

On behalf of the peoples Democratic Party, I call on you to act now and bring any, and all criminal, even treasonable, activity to a halt. You and you alone, have the means. Do not hesitate. We do not have too much time to waste.

A.I. Ogbeh, OFR
National Chairman
cc: Vice President
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Speaker, House of Representatives

http://nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/?u=Ogbeh_letter_Obasanjo_Dec2004.htm

Beleaguered National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh resigned on Sunday – with a gun virtually to his head.

Ogbeh himself broke the news to the media in Abuja on Monday, citing the need to forge party cohesion as reason. But Daily Sun authoritatively learnt that the resignation was by no means voluntary, having been obtained under duress by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The chain of events that culminated in the weekend resignation began this way: The President had breezed into Ogbeh’s house around midnight on Saturday, asking the chairman rather gruffly why he had not resigned after he had earlier promised he was going to do so.

Ogbeh replied that he was still consulting and Obasanjo wanted to know when the consultation would end. When the former replied that he was still consulting, the President stormed out.
By 7.00 on Sunday morning, Audu Ogbeh was summoned to the Presidential Villa, given a sheet of paper on which to write his resignation, and he did.
He told his supporters privately yesterday that he threw in the towel at that point because he had become concerned for his life, the future of the PDP and democracy in the country.

"I did it under duress," he reportedly said. "I was not of a free mind and I do not even have a copy of the letter for myself. The kind of pressure brought on me was so much that it could easily lead to the loss of my life. The other side seemed so desperate."
The ex-chairman further said what he saw in the PDP in the past few weeks was not his own conception of politics, stressing: "It had become so deadly. I would rather be out of it and do something else with my life."

The resignation will be due by February 28.
Ogbeh’s resignation in the early hours of Sunday was the climax of power play and intrigues that began last month, following his letter to President Obasanjo on the state of affairs within the party, including the Anambra crisis.

Ogbeh by his resignation becomes the first chairman of the party whose tenure was prematurely cut short before expiration. He was due to leave office in November, this year at the party’s elective convention.
The hawks within the party, it seems, couldn’t wait any longer. And they struck.
Daily Sun gathered that the absence of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar from the country may have aided this last move to oust the party chairman who had survived two previous plots. The vice-president at the time of the ‘coup’ against Ogbeh was on official assignment in Kenya with the National Security Adviser to the president, General Aliyu Gusau [rtd].

In fact, Daily Sun sources at the state house, confirmed that the vice-president was disturbed by the development that he closed from office by 2pm Monday.
Ironically, Ogbeh denied he resigned under duress but said he had to quit for peace to reign in the party.
"With effect from February, I will not be chairman anymore. That’s all… I have been thinking of it. Let the party be at peace and grow and assert itself. I want the party to move on in harmony not in disharmony. That is why I resigned, " Ogbeh told newsmen at his residence, even as he struggled to keep a calm countenance.
Surrounded by a motley of aides, Ogbeh, dressed in a white caftan said that by resigning, he was not running away from any probe.

"Prosecution? No way. NEC will set up a committee to check its accounts because those who have been speaking on the party’s accounts do not know how party funds are managed. They have gone to the press but many of them participated in programmes which consumed a lot of money. But they have spoken. We will also speak," Ogbeh assured.

When Daily Sun visited Wadata House, PDP’s national secretariat, it looked deserted. Only a few staff of the secretariat were seen around in small groups discussing the latest development in the party. Some of them who spoke on condition of anonymity were only concerned about their unpaid monetisation allowances, and not who becomes the party’s next chairman.

It could not be ascertained what becomes of the National Working Committee [NWC] with the exit of Ogbeh. But by the party’s constitution, the deputy vice-chairman, North, Alhaji Ibrahim Safana is expected to take over the affairs of the party in an acting capacity.
In fact, Ogbeh confirmed as much when he spoke to journalists at his residence Monday. "The deputy chairman North is supposed to act when the chairman is not around. Later, the party will decide what it wants."

At Ogbeh’s residence, the atmosphere was serene, devoid of the usual beehive of activities. In fact, the security guards who kept saying that "oga no wan see anybody now" turned two Chinese visitors away. Only the FCT Minister Nasir el-Rufai was allowed to see Ogbeh. He was said to have arrived the residence at 11am and left at 1pm.

The simmering feud between Ogbeh and Obasanjo had become a public affair with a December 6, 2004 letter written by the former in which he warned on the situation in Anambra State, saying it could imperil the nation and her democracy unless the presidency acted decisively.
Ogbeh decried a situation in which the Dr. Chris Ngige–led government had been held at the throat by Chief Chris Uba and his cohorts, saying it appeared that the governor’s adversaries enjoyed the sympathy of the presidency.

The national chairman’s letter was leaked to the media, followed by Obasanjo’s reply, in which the President accused Ogbeh of bad faith and treachery. Since then, the PDP had been polarized down the middle, broken into pro-Obasanjo and pro-Ogbeh camps.
A meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) held on Tuesday last week, in which it was expected that Ogbeh would be forced to resign.

Surprisingly, however, a seeming truce was brokered and the two leaders left in the same vehicle, with the President going for lunch in Ogbeh’s house. But on Sunday, Obasanjo came out with another trick from the fireman’s bag, thus speeding the PDP further on the path of disintegration.
Before Ogbeh, Obasanjo had seen to the exit of founding PDP chairman, Chief Solomon Lar, and Chief Barnabas Gemade who succeeded him.


http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=514&z=12#ixzz2nH5fqP2e