fired another letter, this time, to
the National Chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in which he
gave a notice of his withdrawal from the activities of the party.
Obasanjo also sent a copy of the
letter to President Goodluck
Jonathan as National Leader of
the party. A copy of the letter was
obtained by the Saturday Tribune. Read the letter after the
break The former president, in the
letter, said he was withdrawing
from all activities of the party
because the PDP had been negating
the principles of morality, decency
and discipline in its decisions, especially as they affect the
South West where he comes from.
The letter, dated January 7, 2014,
according to a source at the
national secretariat of the party,
was received in the office of Tukur on Wednesday, 8 January,
2014. It is believed that President
Jonathan also got his own copy on
Thursday. Obasanjo accused the party
leadership of imposing someone
(names witheld), who he described
as a criminal wanted abroad, on
the party as its South West zonal
leader and proceeded to add that he was forwarding with the letter,
"recent documents" on the alleged
activities of the person. Efforts to
get copies of the "recent
documents" by Saturday Tribune
from both the PDP national secretariat as well as from
Obasanjo's side were, however, not
successful but a source at PDP's
national secretariat confirmed
that the letter came with
attachments. He did not give further details. A meeting of South West leaders
of the party, it was gathered, will
hold in Ibadan, Oyo State, today
and may also come up with far-
reaching decisions on the future
of the party in the zone. PDP governors give fresh conditions
for peace
PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP)
governors have given fresh
conditions for peace to return to
the party and for the chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to remain
in office. Part of the conditions,
according to information gathered
by the Saturday Tribune, is for
President Goodluck Jonathan to
prevail on Tukur to return the structures of the party to them in
their respective states as well as
make them the leaders. Only after
this would they agree to resume
adequate funding of the party at
all levels as well as its national secretariat. Part of Tukur's 'sins' is his alleged
incessant interference in the
affairs of the state chapters,
which is said to have led to the
setting up of caretaker
committees for some of the chapters. The situation did not go
down well with the governors, who
saw the action as erosion of their
powers as leaders in their
respective states. The new
development, sources close to the governors said, followed the
intervention of some respected
leaders of the party who
reportedly counseled them on the
implications of removing Tukur
now that the 2015 general elections are around the corner. Saturday Tribune, however,
learnt that the development had
created a sharp division among the
governors, as some of them are still
insisting that the embattled
chairman must go as earlier demanded, for them continue to be
relevant in the scheme of things in
the party ahead of the 2015
elections. The likes of the
governors of Jigawa and Niger
states, who were members of the aggrieved G7 Governors before five
of them defected to the All
Progressives Congress (APC), and
some others are said to have
insisted that for genuine peace to
return to the PDP and for the party to maintain its supremacy come
2015 elections, there must be a
complete change of leadership. However, one of the aides to Alhaji
Tukur revealed that the cause of
friction between Tukur and the
governors was his insistence that
the party must be returned to the
grassroots, and that the constitution of the party must be
followed to the letter to allow for
due process in election of
candidates for party or elective
offices, rather than the old order
of imposition of candidates by state governors without due
process.
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