Tukur begs Obasanjo to stay in PDP

•Tukur… Bull-in-china-shop approach

Tukur: begs Obasanjo to stay in PDP


Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP on Saturday asked former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to leave the party.

The plea was contained in his response on Saturday to the one-page letter that the former president sent to Tukur and President Jonathan, announcing his withdrawal from all PDP activities at local, state and national levels.

The former President said his action was as a result of recognition of Chief Buruji Kashamu as the Chairman of the Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the party in the South West.

Tukur: begs Obasanjo to stay in PDP
Tukur: begs Obasanjo to stay in PDP

The former President said Kashamu is a wanted man in the United States and as such he cannot be in the same party with him.

However, Kashamu has denied that he is a wanted man in the United States.

But in his letter, Tukur explained how Kashamu became the leader of the party in the South West and asked the former President not to leave the party as his fatherly role and experiences are still necessary in the drive to make the party stronger.

The PDP national chairman said the PDP has important challenges ahead, especially the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun state as well as the overall general election scheduled for 2015, which require contributions from the former President.

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Tukur added that there is need for continuous dialogue, stronger partnership among stakeholders of the party so that the party may bounce back into reckoning in the South West.

According to Tukur, the party needs the governorship elections coming up this year in Ekiti and Osun states and the subsequent elections in 2015 to reclaim lost grounds in the South-West.

Tukur letter reads in part: “It is an honour that you deemed it fit and proper to intimate me with an issue important to your mind and our party in the South-west zone. It is my wish and prayer that such cordial and positive relationship will continue between your good self; former President and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of our great party on one hand, and my humble self, the National Chairman of our party on the other hand.

“Buruji Kasamu came to limelight in politics as a result of the role he played in the politics of Ogun state where both of you come from. He later became a rallying point in the South-west following the Courts’ Orders in the series of cases brought about as a result of disagreements among leaders of the party in the South-west, and Ogun State in particular.

“In my opinion, Buruji became a rallying point because of the absence of a zonal executive in the South-west. This vacuum in the South-west has made him the person to whom many members in all the chapters of the party in the zone approach for one form of assistance or the order.

“We came in when we were threatened with contempt of court charges for not obeying the court’s order to dissolve the South-west zonal executive and remove some officers of the party.

“We complied with the court’s orders because of our belief in the rule of law and to avoid consequences of disobeying such orders.

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