Why We Broke Away - PDP Faction .

We address you today as leaders of PDP, who are
worried by the increasing repression, restrictions of
freedom of association, arbitrary suspension of
members and other such violations of democratic
principles by a faction of our party led by Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur .
While we have done everything humanly possible to
bring to the attention of critical stakeholders within
the party the dangers inherent in the course being
charted by that leadership, it has become very clear
that the desperate permutations towards 2015 general
elections have blinded certain people from the
consequences of their actions.
Not only has the constitution of the party been serially
abused by Alhaji Tukur and his fellow travelers, all the
organs of the party have been rendered virtually
ineffectual by a few people who act as though above
the law. Unfortunately, it is obvious that that they get
encouragement from the presidency whose old
calculations are geared towards shutting out any real
or imagined opposition ahead of the party’s
presidential primaries for the 2015 elections.
As leaders of our great party, we consider it a sacred
responsibility to save the PDP from the antics of a few
desperadoes who have no democratic temperament
and are therefore bent on hijacking the party for selfish
ends. While the list of their violations of the tenets of
our great party is long, we will highlight just a few:
The National Executive Committee of the PDP at its
belated meeting of 20 June 2013 approved 20 July
2013 for the conduct of a special national convention.
However, that date was changed to August 31 without
reverting to NEC ( the only authority vested with such
powers) by a few people, apparently acting on the
authority of the presidency.
Notwithstanding the fact that INEC had noted that the
PDP congresses in nine states were not properly
conducted, the illegal delegates from such states are
being paraded at the so-called convention being held
today in a cynical attempt to circumvent the law and
further bring the name of the party to disrepute.
In gross violation of the PDP constitution which
stipulates that the NEC meeting must hold at least
once in a quarter, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and a few
people have been running the party like a personal
fiefdom without recourse to that important decision-
making organ of the party.
The NEC of the party accepted the resignation of the
former members of the NWC whose offices were
affected by INEC observations based principally on the
agreement that the affected officers would be returned
to their respective offices at the convention. However,
against the decision of the NEC. And in a not-so-
clever bid to exclude some perceived opponents of the
few powerful members who are trying to hijack the
party, these positions have been made Open to some
Yes-men within the party.
Notwithstanding INEC instance that Senator Any Uba
is the duly elected candidate of the party in Anambra
State and against the background that he is so
recognized by majority of our party members, the
Bamanga Tukur-led Executives announced a purported
suspension of Senator Uba and some other members
close to him in defiance of subsisting court orders.
Despite that the PDP Constitution is very clear that
the state chapter of the party cannot discipline a
national officer, the Deputy National Chairman, Mr.
Sam Jaja, has reportedly been dismissed by some
renegades who have hijacked the Rivers State chapter
of our party with the connivance of the Bamanga
Tukur leadership.
The persistent change in the list of the party’s
delegates in many states as part of a deliberate
attempt to rig the party’s nomination of candidates,
especially at the presidential and gubernatorial levels,
with a view to foisting on the PDP some unpopular
candidates who are bound to lose at the polls.
The suspension without due process of the Governors
of Rivers and Sokoto states. Even when the illegal
suspension on Sokoto State Governor has been lifted,
the Rivers Governor remains purportedly suspended for
no just cause.
The illegal dissolution of the Adamawa State chapter
of the party is a clear abuse of power by Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur thus causing confusion in his home state.