THE PUNCH gathered on Thursday that the President, who was disturbed by Tukur’s defeat in Bauchi, would meet with the PDP governors on Friday at the Presidential Villa. Sources said he planned to seek fresh support for Tukur at the meeting.
The meeting with the governors, it was gathered, would be preceded by another meeting with the party’s zonal leaders on Thursday night as soon as the President returned from Kebbi State, where he attended the party’s campaign for the state’s governorship rerun.
A member of the PDP National Working Committee, who spoke to one of our correspondents in confidence, said, “There is nothing to fear about. What happened in Bauchi will not affect Tukur’s chances.
“The President will, on Friday, meet with the governors to further solicit support for Tukur, who is the party’s consensus candidate. His meeting with zonal leaders will take place this night (Thursday night).”
At a news conference on Thursday, Tukur, who was represented by the Director-General of his campaign group, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, said what happened at the North-East congress was a “kangaroo arrangement”.
He said, “It has no effect on the ambition of Tukur. Those that voted were not delegates. Tukur has visited the whole country, canvassing for votes. They say he is old, yet the young ones do not have the capacity to go anywhere. He is not going for a wrestling contest.
“Those who want to lead should come to the Eagles Square on Saturday. Tukur is the most popular candidate of all.”
But some of the delegates at the Wednesday’s congress defended the emergence of Dr. Musa Babayo, who defeated nine other aspirants.
A North-East political strategist, Mr. Daniels Richards, who observed the congress, said Babayo’s election was credible and democratic, adding that governors had no hand in his emergence.
“All aspirants were given a level playing ground. What happened in Bauchi was the wish of the people. I don’t know why some people are afraid of election,” he said.
Meanwhile, some PDP leaders, including a former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana; ex-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Abba Gana; and his counterpart for Youth, Sports and Culture, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, said Babayo’s election would not stand the test of time.
They all spoke at an event tagged, “An Evening with Bamanga Tukur,” organised by friends of Tukur on Wednesday night at the Thisday Dome in Abuja.
Gana, who was the Chairman of the occasion, described the former governor of the old Gongola State as a motivator who had inspired many across the country.
He said there were six zones in the country and if the rest “say it is Bamanga Tukur, no one can change it.”
Also, nine of the aspirants on Thursday insisted that there must be election on Saturday.
The aspirants, at a press briefing in the house of Alhaji Ibrahim Bunu, said the selection of Babayo at the North-East zonal congress was unconstitutional.
Those at the briefing, apart from Bunu, were Dr. Shetima Mustapha, Ambassador Idris Waziri, Adamu Bello, Senator Abba Aji, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, Alhaji Gambo Lawan, and Alhaji Shehu Birma while Tukur was represented by a former Minister of Education, Alhaji Dauda Birmas.
They said, “We refused to accept this strange and totally undemocratic situation as what happened in Bauchi where only 21 people gathered to take such critical decision without due consultation and with flagrant disregard to justice, equity and fair play.”
Also, an Abuja High Court will today (Friday) hear a suit brought by an aspirant to the post of the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Okey Uzoho, asking it to stop the party’s national convention slated for Saturday on the grounds that he was wrongfully excluded from the list of candidates.
In the suit filed by his counsel, Maureen Nneji, on Thursday, the plaintiff is asking the court for an order halting the party’s national convention slated and deferring/ postponing same for two weeks to enable him make up for valuable and crucial campaign time and reclaim critical political support base lost as a result of the said exclusion.
The plaintiff is also asking the court for an order of mandatory injunction restraining the PDP from proceeding with any further arrangement, process or preparations for the national convention on March 24, 2012 or any other date unless and until his name is included as a candidate for the post of National Publicity Secretary.
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