The Presidency has explained why the aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governors cannot insist on the removal of the party's National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur.
Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, gave the explanation on Monday in Abuja, in an interview with journalists, following Jonathan's meeting with the PDP governors on the crisis rocking the party.
He said the chairman was elected at a convention of the party, adding that the Independent National Electoral Commission had confirmed that his election followed due process.
Gulak also berated former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for his role in the split of the PDP, saying Atiku should be grateful to the ruling party.
When asked whether the seven aggrieved PDP governors asked for the removal of Tukur at the meeting with the President, Gulak said, "You cannot remove the national chairman like that. He was elected and you will remember that of all the offices, INEC observed that only the positions of the national chairman and the financial secretary were properly done.
"That is why we had to do the special national convention to properly elect the other officers. There are processes. There are provisions in the constitution. There are electoral acts and we should not act outside the laws."
Six governors, Atiku and a former Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, walked out of the party's convention on Saturday and announced the formation of a faction of the party.
Gulak described the PDP as a law-abiding party, adding that it would continue to ensure internal democracy.
"You cannot come and say, remove Mr. A or Mr. B, and you cannot say, for example, remove governor A. There are processes for removal. The constitution is clear about it."
The presidential aide appealed to the party leaders to continue to dialogue.
He said, "We want to plead with all members of this political party to keep on dialoguing and discussing, because the opposition out there wants the party to split and there are moles, and it sent its moles in the cloak of the PDP.
"We have discovered them and Insha Allah, all PDP stakeholders, especially our field commanders, who are the governors, have discovered this and we are talking."
He said the split of the PDP was not the end of the ruling party.
"It is only the PDP that has consistently maintained its identity and its name so there is no party that can beat PDP," he said.
He also berated Atiku for leading a faction of the PDP.
Gulak said, "I was surprised because Atiku is supposed to know more than any other person that there is no party like the PDP.
"He left the PDP and went to the ACN and he came back to the PDP, because he discovered that outside the PDP, there is no party; so he had to come back and he was even given the waiver to contest the primaries in 2011.
"Atiku should be grateful to the PDP. Atiku is indebted to the PDP and the best way to continue to pay the debt is to protect the PDP."
On the meeting, he said, "The President is the leader of the party. The governors came and the President and other leaders had useful discussions with them, and God willing, these things will be things of the past.
"We are harmonising. We are talking. We are dialoguing, because the PDP as a family will not allow any of its members to go away, and even the members that want to go away, we will make bold to tell them that out there is no party as good as the PDP."
Also, one of the six governors, who pleaded anonymity, responded to Gulak's statement that they could not insist on Tukur's removal.
He said, "I don't know what Gulak means by what he said because if governors on the platform of the party cannot demand for reforms aimed at improving the party, who else can-the opposition?
"There is nothing personal about demanding Tukur's removal. The party has been dragged to a level that its founding fathers, living and dead, never imagined it could degenerate to. Why insist on having such a man remain at the helm of affairs?"
"Should he be allowed to nail the party's coffin and bury it before he is allowed to go? People like Gulak are the ones misleading the President."
Punch
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