THE crises rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have taken a
new twist with governors elected on the platform of the party now
pushing for the full implementation of the report of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the 2012 National convention.
The governors at the end of a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, it
was learnt, also pushed for the adoption of a political solution to the
problem that led to the exit of the party’s National Secretary, former
governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
The governors who met under the platform of the PDP Governors’ Forum
described the INEC report as a time-bomb for PDP with a warning that
failure to implement it would lead to disaster and legal problems for
the party.
INEC had last month released the report of its monitoring of the 2012
convention of the party in which it alleged that the election that
produced majority of the members of the National Working Committee, NWC,
was defective and in gross violation of the party’s guidelines for the
convention.
Specifically, INEC had claimed that besides the quartet of the
National Chairman, National Secretary, National Auditor and the National
Financial Secretary, who went through the process of election with
counting of votes, the other members of the NWC who were elected by
affirmation failed the guidelines as stipulated by the PDP’s convention
guidelines.
The National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur polled 3,185 votes; sacked
National Auditor – Bode Mustapha scored 3,005 votes; Financial
Secretary, Elder Bolaji Anani got 2,975 votes and sacked National
Secretary Olagunsoye Oyinlola got 3,061 votes.
The INEC report after some initial trepidation in the party heriarchy
was subsequently dismissed by the PDP National Publicity Secretary,
Chief Olisa Metuh who described the report as a fabrication aimed at
embarrassing the party.
“This report is totally false and is clearly part of the orchestrated
media attack on our party, aimed at causing confusion and undermining
the psyche of our members,” Metuh was quoted as saying when the report
of the electoral body first emerged.
His assertion nonetheless, the party’s governors, it was learnt, are
now pressing for the full implementation of the report through holding
of a mini convention to fill up vacancies or regularize the election of
those INEC alleged to have been irregularly elected.
The source at the meeting told Vanguard that the PDP governors
resolved that it has become imperative to implement the report against
the backdrop that, with the present situation, the future actions of the
present NWC could be questioned, given the INEC query on the election
of the NWC members.
According to source, the governors resolved to tell Tukur to go ahead
with the implementation of the report where those affected will face
fresh elections if they so desire as a soft-landing.
In the alternative, the NWC members who do not return could be compensated with board appointments.
Vanguard also gathered that the governors were making case for the
return of one of their former colleagues, the sacked National Secretary,
Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola through what they termed political solution
to the problem.
It would be recalled that Oyinlola was removed last January following
the action of a federal high court ruling which pronounced that the
zonal congress that produced him was illegally conducted and he was
immediately replaced by the Deputy Secretary, Solomon Onwe who has been
in acting capacity since then.
The governors are peeved with the speed with which Tukur moved to
execute the court ruling, despite apprehensions that a strict
interpretation could have also affected all the other members of the NWC
elected at the national convention.
Oyinlola in a memo sent to the Governor Ibrahim Shema-led South-West
Peace Panel put in place by the PDP Governors’ Forum, PDPGF, called the
attention of the panel to the fact that ’it was the same South-West
delegates to the PDP zonal congress of March 21, 2012, that also voted
at the national convention held on Saturday March 24, 2012.”
The letter read in part: “I wish to also make it known that most of
the decisions taken in this matter have been unilaterally taken by the
national chairman who attempted on more than one occasion to rail-road
the NWC into taking hasty and ill-conceived decisions.
“This development could only ridicule all of us in the eyes of
right-thinking members of the society; and I must say that, expectedly,
these sordid developments have had negative effects on the morale of
members of the PDP in my zone.
“Let me go further that going by this same Federal High Court, Lagos
ruling cited earlier, both the national chairman and the national
secretary have not been validly elected following the nullification of
the South-west zonal congress by the court. That aspect of the judgment
concerning Olagunsoye Oyinlola has been implemented.
“However, the Federal High Court ruling which annulled the South-west
Congress which also produced the national chairman and members of the
NWC has not been considered in the process of implementing court
“Technically, that judgment also invalidated the election of the
national chairman based on the fact that the South-west delegates to the
PDP zonal congress of March 21, 2012, also voted at our National
Convention held on Saturday March 24, 2012.”
No comments:
Post a Comment