In the house of Senate today, Wednesday, the factions in the People's Democratic Party, PDP, engaged in a bout which principally was between Senator Danjuma Goje representing Gombe West and Senator Smart Adeyemi.
Trouble started when Senator Goje who is
loyal to the Alhaji Kawu Baraje faction of
the PDP, while paying tributes to the late
former Governor of Ondo State, Dr.
Olusegun Agagu introduced himself as a
member of the nPDP and he was quickly
interrupted by Senator Adeyemi who
raised point of order to the comment.
But what would have culminated in
serious crisis was immediately arrested
by the Senate President, David Mark who
assured his colleagues that so far as the
party remained one strong and indivisible
entity and that the Senate was not in the
position to decide who heads the party.
The splinter group of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under the leadership of Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, yesterday called on President Goodluck Jonathan not to contest the 2015 presidential election, urging him to be a hero and save the country from a needless crisis.
In the same vein, members of the House of Representatives loyal to the Speaker, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, reacted to the pro-Jonathan members of the House, stating that they lacked the necessary capacity to defend the interest of the president in the lower legislative chamber.
Specifically referring to the pro-Jonathan lawmakers, led by Hon. Bethel Amadi, they said if they had the capacity, both the speaker and deputy speaker of the House would not have emerged against the resolution of the PDP, which had zoned both positions to the South-west and North-east respectively.
This is just as two of the aggrieved governors – Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State – have stated that no amount of intimidation by the presidency or threats by the PDP to sanction them and other members of the New PDP will make them deviate from the path of “truth and justice”.
In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the breakaway PDP, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, the New PDP said: “We wish to advise President Jonathan to abandon his plan to seek re-election in 2015 as this ambition of his is not in the best interest of the country.”
It added: “Though he has yet to categorically declare his intention to run, President Jonathan has given enough clues indicating that he is working towards doing so. The latest of such clues came on Sunday in New York, USA.
“Speaking at a luncheon with Nigerian professionals in the United States, President Jonathan insisted that he is eligible to contest in 2015, stating that we have a constitution that makes a provision for a maximum of eight years for anyone who wants to become a president or a governor.”
