BARAJE, LAMIDO, ALIYU, OTHERS SHALL BE TREATED AS CRIMINALS –TUKUR

In what appears as its resolve for a showdown with the Kawu Baraje faction of the party, the PDP National Working Committee has declared that it would henceforth treat the parallel national working committee of the party and those fraternising with it as criminals usurping the functions of a duly constituted executive.
Reacting to the judgment of a Lagos High Court, which last Thursday struck out the suit instituted by the factional leadership of the party, the Bamanga Tukur-led national working committee of the party on Friday declared: “Any group of persons parading themselves as leaders of this organ of our party are impostors and must be treated as criminals by all and sundry.
“Henceforth, the leadership of the PDP will no longer tolerate or condone any meeting, utterances, press statements and/or activities whatsoever under the name, flag and colour of the PDP by any unauthorised person or group(s) under any guise”.
Recall that INEC had last week rejected the request of the Kawu Baraje faction to be accorded recognition as the duly constituted executive of the party.
The electoral body, in a letter signed by its acting secretary, U.F. Usman, informed the factional group that it would not accede to its request as it noted that the commission was part of the team that observed the March 24, 2012 national convention that produced Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as national chairman of the party and the August 31, 2013 special national convention, where his position as national chairman was reaffirmed.
Leading members of the factional group are former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former National secretary of the party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Governors of Rivers, Adamawa, Kano, Jigawa, Kwara, Niger and Sokoto states.
Tukur in the statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, further noted that its reconciliatory stance has been taken as a sign of weakness and it would no longer tolerate disobedience to constituted authority.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the ruling of the court in this regard is absolutely clear, direct and unambiguous.
The PDP has only one duly elected National Executive Committee under the National Chairmanship of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.”
But Baraje, in his reaction, said it was not bothered by the threat from Bamanga Tukur leadership of the party.
The publicity scribe of the parallel national working committee, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze gave indication that his group would appeal the judgment of the Lagos High Court, even as it insisted that it would continue to lay claim to the leadership of the party.
Source: Sun/