SAN FRANCISCO, September 18, (THEWILL) – The new faction of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the leadership of Alhaji Abubakar Baraje-led Peoples on Wednesday asked Nigerians to ignore what it called the tissue of lies and propaganda from the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur faction of the party on the outcome of its meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa in Abuja last Sunday.
Maintaining that no agreement had been reached yet with Jonathan on its demands, the faction said the Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, was only deceiving Nigerians by saying that the new-PDP had reached an agreement with the president on its demands.
The Baraje-led PDP also accused the Tukur faction of not being serious about the ongoing peace talks, saying it had been justified that Tukur was not sincere in his actions.
A statement signed by the national publicity secretary of the new-PDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, said: “We have read various misleading accounts of what transpired at that meeting between our progressive Governors – Gov Kwankwaso of Kano, Gov. Wamakko of Sokoto, Gov. Amaechi of Rivers, Gov Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Gov. Nyako of Adamawa, Gov. Ahmed of Kwara and Gov. Lamido of Jigawa with President Jonathan on how to resolve the self-inflicted crisis in our party.
“We wish to specifically urge Nigerians and our supporters to ignore the concocted tales of Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Chairman of PDP Governors Forum. Akpabio lied by claiming that we have accepted that President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential election and that most of our demands are being met. The fact of the case is that no agreement has been reached on any of the issues we tabled before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them.
“On whether President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential election or not, we wish to say that we have a mechanism and system of electing our flag-bearers for any election and until the time to choose the party’s presidential flag-bearer comes, any speculation on this is just a mere academic exercise.
“Meanwhile, we have been vindicated in our claim that Alhaji Tukur and his faction are not serious about their purported search for the return of peace in our party. Just few hours after Sunday’s meeting between the progressive Governors and the President, Tukur’s faction once more showed its disdain for peace by unilaterally setting up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of our Kano chapter. This was done without recourse to either the Leader of the party in Kano State, Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from Kano. This illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and was hurriedly done just to spite Gov. Kwankwaso, the Party Leader in the state
“We hereby urge our people in Kano State to ignore this illegality as we have set in motion the machinery to organise a proper election as stipulated by our party’s constitution. We are still at a loss why Tukur and his cohorts do not want peace to reign in PDP but no matter the odds we are very determined to ensure that peace is restored to our party with the prayers of Nigerians.
“Along this line, we once more appreciate the efforts of our Party Elders to resolve the current crisis bedevilling our party and wish them success irrespective of the evil designs of Tukur’s faction to elongate the crisis for selfish reasons. “
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