21st December, 2023
Former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has angrily queried whether his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, or indeed, its National Working Committee, NLC still exists.
Lamido raised the query in reaction to the peace deal brokered by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to solve the political crisis in Rivers sparked by the disagreement between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike,
The two-time governor of Jigawa State was angry that the PDP allowed Tinubu, a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC to intervene in a matter involving two members of the party.
He also claimed that rather than be an impartial arbiter, the President used the opportunity of his intervention to enhance the fortune of the APC to the disadvantage of the PDP.
Lamido, also a former Minister of Foreign Affairs who said in a statement yesterday, accused the PDP of docility, noting that in the absence of the party, a tribal voice, in the form of elder statesman has to take up the fight for Fubara.
Aside the PDP, advised Fubara to reject the purported peace deal he signed with Wike and throw it into a trash can.
He said, “Pray, do we still have the National Working Committee of the PDP? Or better still, do we have a party called PDP?
“If we have one of the two, how come their total absence in the saga playing out in the PDP family in Rivers? Is the docility of the leadership of the PDP so comatose to the extent that President Tinubu of APC, our sworn rival and opponent, is now the grand patriarch of PDP?”
“It is inconceivable that a political party will simply sit back and allow its fortunes taken over by a rapacious scavenger, the APC.
“What President Tinubu did in the so-called peace meeting is not brokering peace in Rivers State, but using his office to enhance the fortunes of his political party.
“Unwittingly, the so-called peace accord in Rivers only planted the mines, which will definitely explode in the not-too-distant future, with collateral consequences on the entire country. Asari Mujaheed Tokubo and Chief Edwin Clark have alluded to this last week.”
Lamido said the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) “should feel sufficiently embarrassed if not slighted, by the action taken by President Tinubu to reward a political mercenary with PDP fortunes in Rivers State.
“More to the eternal shame of PDP NWC that a tribal voice of Ijaws through Chief Edwin Clark press conference has to be deployed to challenge the illegality and unconstitutionality of the peace accord.
“Like Chief Clark said in the press conference, if Tinubu, as the then governor of Lagos, could stand up and fight President Obasanjo’s awesome power and personality and endure to overcome, can’t PDP do likewise?
“The PDP must take off from where Chief Clark started to fight this illegality through our justice system and all other legal means possible!
“If the national executive of the PDP does not have the nerve to stand up and protect its own, it should honorably step down to allow for the election of competent hands.”
“To Governor Fubara of Rivers State, the document you signed was under an environment not friendly to real conflict resolution and it was presided by the force of fear, intimidation, and blackmail. Therefore, shred the document and toss it into a trash can.
“Governor Fubara may wish to know that President Tinubu, who chaired the meeting, was running with the deer and hunting with hound!”