PDP’s Many Lies and The Truth About Obasanjo’s Visit to Rivers

The Rivers State Chapter of All Progressives Congress says it is shocked by the shameful lies being spewed out by the PDP in the State, particularly on the working visit of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, that is scheduled for next week Monday, 17th February, 2014.

The APC in a statement by Chief Eze Chukwemeka Eze said:

“It is not in our character to join issues with a group whose stock-in-trade is falsehood and the dishing out of lies upon lies against a performing Governor just because he decided to dump the visionless Peoples Democratic Party and join his soul mates in APC, where he truly belongs. Even so, we are constrained to respond and set the records straight because lies, when told many times without being challenged, could be accepted as fact by the unsuspecting public. 

"In this regard, we wish to respond as follows regarding some of the malicious lies by the PDP leadership in Rivers State as contained in a statement issued by the propagandist Jerry Needam alias ‘Jerry the Liar’ on behalf of the PDP’s factional State Chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah...

Defection: PDP regains House majority status

The Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday regained its majority status in the House of Representatives following the  defection of five members of the All Progressives Congress to the PDP.

The PDP, which had earlier lost the majority status in the House to the APC, now has 178 lawmakers to APC’s 168.

Although the APC also gained one member from the PDP on Tuesday, the latter is now in the majority.

The APC had moved to 172 members on December 19, 2013 after 37 PDP lawmakers defected to the party.

Read Professor Pat Utomi's Exposé On PDP versus APC

Clichés have a way of reinforcing stereotypes and shielding either the truth or an understanding of trends that result in more than the narrow visions of the point. There is perhaps no better example of this than frequently repeated view that there is no difference between the major political parties in Nigeria today. It is a cliché that needs discerning exploration.

It may be true that no clear set of ideas defined engagement of parties in the wake of the hurried departure of the military in 1999 but, lessons from history suggest that the kind of groaning and travails that currently mark the system have had a way of giving birth to something new and more desirable. It is this history that leads me to being more cautious in judgement.

It is in fact my expectation that the more carefully observed signs pointing to an All Progressives Congress (APC) that will be ideologically left of centre, and very peoples-oriented, a kind of people sensitive and responsive enterprise economy, that is justice focused. Also that even the PDP will come out of this process less prone to impunity, even if conservative, and may become more disciplined. 

Why do I think so? 

How PDP Is Using Dollars To Bribe House of Reps Members

PDP has gone to court to challenge the decision of its members to dump the party and join the APC but they do not have enough confidence in their case in court, at least that's how it appears giving their desperation.

The All Progressives Congress has accused the Peoples Democratic Party of using public funds to lure back a handful of the federal lawmakers who have defected from the party to the All Progressives Congress, and thus condemned what it called political horse trading carried too far.

"Nigerians can now see why their country has gone broke; why the allocation to states from the Federation Account has continued to dwindle, and why infrastructures have either remained decrepit or non-existent. It is not difficult to imagine the number of boreholes that 10 million dollars can sink, or how far such a huge amount will go in building cottage hospitals and health clinics.

"'Things are bound to get worse in the days ahead because the desperate PDP will, more and more, use public funds to try to change the course of history. We therefore urge Nigerians to remain resolute in the face of what will be a wave of inducements never before seen in these climes, because there is no going back on the plan to vote out the PDP next year and save Nigeria from a rapacious and inept leadership."

In fact, the Presidency is so desperate that they are even offering Rivers lawmakers $5million each...

PDP Chairman's Peace Talks With Obasanjo Failed

Strong indications have emerged that efforts by the troubled Peoples Democratic Party to make ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to have a rethink on his decision to stay away from the party’s activities have failed.

“Baba (Obasanjo) is still insisting on issues he raised in his two letters, particularly the restructuring of the party. He had said that he would withdraw from the party’s activities, until grievances he mentioned in the letter to the PDP and the President are addressed. 

“On Jonathan’s purported second (or third) term ambition, Obasanjo stated that nothing had changed from what he wrote in the letter to the President because it is a matter of honour.”

PDP Thugs Unleash Terror On APC Registration in Rivers State

The APC in Rivers State cried out that there were plans to attack its members during the party's registration exercise but the police failed to take their words serious for reasons best known to them.

The fast-growing opposition party notes with sadness the implementation of plot by Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI), the political machinery of Supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike and some PDP agents to unleash mayhem and disrupt APC’s membership registration exercise which started in all the 4,442 political Units across the State.

"When we first got intelligence reports on the planned attacks, we initially did not attach much importance to it, but we were proved wrong when some of our registration officers and innocent citizens of Rivers State who turned up to be registered by APC as the exercise took off today were attacked by thugs hired by PDP and GDI. 

All PDP aspirants must go through primaries –Mu’azu

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, has said  the party has no plan to anoint anyone for any elective office in 2015.

Rather, he said each contestant  would  emerge through transparent primaries  to  be conducted by the party.

He said members of the party would also be allowed to choose their leaders without any interference from the national leadership of the party.

Mu’azu spoke at the  Wadata Plaza, Abuja   national secretariat of the party    on Tuesday when he received  a PDP delegation from Akwa Ibom State  led by   Governor  Godswill  Akpabio.

PDP, APC Senators clash over 2014 budget

The Senate on Tuesday began debate on the 2014 Appropriation  bill with members disagreeing  along party lines on its passage.

While the Peoples Democratic Party senators commended the bill  and called for its immediate approval,  their  All Progressives Congress  counterparts sought its rejection and return to the Executive for a rejig.

To the PDP senators, the appropriation bill should be passed  because  it would promote economic growth and add fillip to the Transformation Agenda of the Goodluck  Jonathan administration.

But the APC lawmakers believed that it was not packaged to empower the people and  address  insecurity in the country, especially in the  North-East.

THE REAL ANARCHISTS ARE JONATHAN AND THE PDP

The PDP, the Presidency and their paid agents in the Yinka Odumakins of this world, [the Victor Umehs, the Dan Nwanyawus], the rudderless Afenifere gang and the remnants of the activist class, now turned Jonathan apologists, have been up in arms since APC issued the directive to its lawmakers to block executive bills.

The bad mouthing, the winning, the sentimental arguments and the crying wolf where there is none by these groups is so laughable and reeks of ignorance and mischief.

As expected, Odumakin, multiple agent of state - who straddles the worlds of being a pseudo-progressive and that of being an anarchist - as expected was one of the first voices to condemn the APC. Riding on the castrated Afenifere platform, Odumakin condemned APC’s plan to block all legislative proposals. 

Because they were in a hurry to deliver the message of their masters, they had no time to think on their own, thus their ignorance about democratic principles and what obtains in a country with two strong parties is on display was immediately exposed to discerning minds.

PDP Begs Court: Our Defected Lawmakers Must Lose Seats

When Senator Obanikoro and others decamped from their party to the PDP, did they lose his seat?...

But the Peoples Democratic Party is insisting that its members in the National Assembly who dumped the party and joined the All Progressives Congress must lose their seats.

“Both the law and the PDP Constitution are very clear on the issues raised by the plaintiff. One cannot abandon the political party upon whose platform he was elected as a member of parliament and then proceed to another political party while holding unto that parliamentary seat. 

“Additionally, the law should take its course in that the seat of any of the plaintiffs who decamp to other political parties should be declared vacant.”

Tukur’s successor: Jonathan, North Eastern governors consider consensus candidate

President Goodluck Jonathan and Peoples Democratic Party’s governors from the North East may have adopted the option of a consensus candidate for the post of the chairmanship of the party.

The party’s former chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, officially resigned his position at the 63rd National Executive Committee meeting of the party in Abuja on Thursday.

President Jonathan, Saturday PUNCH learnt, considered having a consensus candidate when his preferred candidate,  a former governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Muázu, was rejected  by governors from the North East, the zone expected  to produce the next chairman of the party.

The President held a closed door meeting with the three governors and a deputy governor from the North East zone on Friday.  The meeting which lasted over an hour took place inside the President’s Office.

PDP's Plot To Drag Tinubu Into Rivers Police Brutality Is Idiotic

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State chapter, has lambasted the Rivers State chapter of the PDP for blaming the instigated warfare it (the PDP) is levying on Rivers State presently on the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu. The party said the funny position of the Rivers PDP is informed by a consuming mania for the leading role Tinubu is playing to forge a common front to uproot the PDP from further despoiling the country and wrecking a well endowed country through deliberate corruption, impunity and gargantuan misrule by the PDP.

“We challenge Rivers PDP to advance further proof of its lamed and idiotic allegation that our National Leader is inciting it to carry out wholesome brigandage in Rivers State just to satiate its base political interests and the selfish interests of its leaders. We want them to advance good proof that any other group besides Rivers PDP is prosecuting the wanton violence in Rivers today."

Tukur quits as PDP chairman

After months of political  horse- trading,  Dr. Bamanga Tukur,  on Wednesday  finally bowed   to pressures on him to resign as the National Chairman of the ruling  Peoples Democratic Party.

Before an  authoritative source in Abuja made this known to The PUNCH  at about 11.51pm, there had been confusion on   whether he had indeed quit or not.

Tukur himself accentuated the confusion when he told State House correspondents minutes before the PDP  Board of Trustees met in the Presidential Villa, that he had not resigned.

“If I resign, you will know. I am not somebody that will resign and you will not know. I have not resigned.”

Obasanjo Finally Dumps PDP: Sends Letter to Tukur & Jonathan

There has been reports last year that President Olusegun Obasanjo is tired of the PDP just like many Nigerians are, some didn't believe. But alas! the deed is done and Baba Iyabo is out of PDP:

At a time we had thought that the season of controversy-stirring letters among political players, particularly key leaders in the country, is over, another bombshell has been released. And it comes from Obasanjo.

The latest letter is not, as many may have expected, to the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, but to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur the chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to which he belongs. According to reliable sources, in the one-page letter written on Thursday, a copy of which was sent to the president, Obasanjo declared that he would cease to be a member of the party or participate in any political activities at any level.

At last, Jonathan turns against Tukur

At last, President Goodluck Jonathan has turned against the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as the crisis rocking the ruling party worsens.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that for the first time, the President openly condemned the party chairman’s administrative style at a stormy  meeting  with Tukur  and  other members of the PDP National Working Committee at the presidential villa  in Abuja  on Thursday night.

At the meeting held under what could best be described as a tensed atmosphere, the President was said to have expressed his displeasure over the way the PDP chairman was running the party.

Specifically, the President was said to have pointedly accused Tukur of not working well with some organs of the party like the members of the National Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, governors and state party chairmen   across the states.

Fresh crisis hits SouthWest PDP

There are indications that fresh crisis is brewing among the members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West.

Investigations by our correspondent in Abuja on Friday showed that leaders of the party from the zone are not happy with the way the party is being run.

For example, some members of the party have called for a meeting, where issues bothering on disagreements and other issues among its members are billed to be addressed in Ibadan on Saturday(today).

The meeting, which holds at the residence of the former Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), who is also the father of the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Mrs. Olajumoke Akinjide, is being threatened with boycott by some leaders of the party in the zone.

Stop defection, Akpabio begs Tambuwal

Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio has implored the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, to stop further defection of members of Peoples Democratic Party in the National Assembly to other political parties.

Akpabio’s position was contained in a statement issued by the state government after Tambuwal paid him a courtesy visit in Uyo on Monday.

It will be recalled that 37 members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of PDP had defected to the All Progressives Congress.

We’re ready for legal battle with PDP-- Amaechi

The five  Peoples Democratic Party who defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress  are  ready to meet the ruling party in court, the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has said.

Amaechi made this known in Port Harcourt on Wednesday just as the PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, boasted that Amaechi and his colleagues would willingly return to the party soon.

The PDP had  last month asked an Abuja Federal High Court to sack the five governors. It    also prayed the court to   order the houses of assembly of Adamawa, Rivers, Sokoto, Kano and Kwara states to commence impeachment proceedings against the governors.