PDP clears Tukur, says National Chairman won’t resign

The Ruling party say Baraje, G7 governors lack ‘institutional memory’ to remember events in the ruling party.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that its National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, would not resign because his membership of the ruling party was not questionable.
The spokesperson of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, who stated this at a news conference on Monday, said the Alex Ekwueme-led National Reconciliation Committee set up in 2007 by the leadership of the party, gave Mr. Tukur and other expelled members a blanket amnesty and waver to return to it.
The Kawu Baraje faction of the party, also known as “New PDP” had, on Sunday, demanded the resignation of the national chairman, saying he ceased to be a member of the ruling party since 2006 when he and nine others were expelled.
The faction also said Mr. Tukur should hand over to Mr. Baraje, who incidentally handed over to him (Tukur) following the latter’s victory at the March 2012 National Convention of the party.
It further suggested to President Goodluck Jonathan to provide a soft landing to Mr. Tukur by offering him a
ministerial position.
Mr. Metuh said that members of the faction, which included the governors of Jigawa, Sokoto, Niger, Adamawa, Rivers, Kwara and Kano States, lacked the ‘institutional memory’ to call for Mr. Tukur’s resignation.
He, however, singled out the Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, as the only one who could recall what transpired then.
“In 2007, we set up Ekwueme reconciliation committee and the committee gave a blanket amnesty, a blanket waiver for all people, who have left the party or offended the party or the party sacked, but free to come back and we wipe away every single thing and start on a clean slate as if it had never happened,” he stated.
“So, what that meant is that even if it is true that the National Chairman or some other people have been suspended or expelled by the party, that Ekwueme’s report gave a blanket amnesty to them and brought them back and restore them to their original position.
“We have looked at the G7 or we have looked at this our aggrieved brothers, minus the governor of Jigawa state, we don’t think of any other person that has institutional memory to remember things that happened in this our party from inception.
“There is nobody there that has ever been in the party administration except our former National Chairman (Baraje). And again, (that was) only in 2008. So he would not know what happened in this party before then.”
The PDP spokesperson noted that prior to Mr. Baraje’s emergence as the National Secretary in 2008, he was not associated with party administration, stressing, “there is no need to be throwing batters on people who do not have institutional memories and people who do not have records and people who never participated in any decision making during that period.”
He explained that Mr. Tukur was not only a founding member of the PDP, but also one of its founding fathers. He, therefore, challenged the Baraje faction to come out and explain to Nigeria why they were opposed to Mr. Tukur’s leadership of the party.
“Now, apart from the Ekwueme’s report, for the National Chairman to go on a campaign and win a general election at the convention ground and nothing like this ever came up and nobody brought it up, it becomes completely immaterial of what they are saying at this point.”
“Are they afraid of Bamanga Tukur because he is moving the party forward? Are they afraid of him because he is a strong personality? Do they want the PDP to have a weaker Chairman? Do they want the PDP that would not be supportive of the President as leader of the party? That is what we want to know.
“They should tell us why they are completely opposed to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur being the Chairman of the PDP.
“We are worried about why they keep on harping on it and the more they shout at Bamanga Tukur, the more we cherish the National Chairman that we have, the more we are proud of his achievements and the more we are more receptive to his ideas. They can continue pushing but the Chairman is in charge of the party and we are happy with him.”