Baraje’s PDP mulls contempt charges against Tukur

Ayo Oluokun/Abuja

The Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led faction of Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday said it has mandated its lawyers to press contempt charges against the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

In a statement issued by its National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the new PDP said Tukur’s threats to sack members of the National Assembly who have declared support for it at a press conference in Abuja yesterday and arrest its officers amounted to impunity, lawlessness and crass ignorance of the tenets of the law and democratic ethos.

The statement read: “We have asked our lawyers to press contempt charges against Tukur because his statement was made in clear contempt of the orders of Lagos High Court which three days ago asked both sides to maintain the status quo. We will ask the court to commit him to jail for his disdain for the law and the judicial system.

“We have always been saying it that Tukur represents everything that must not be seen in a democratic organization. His statement demonstrates not just impunity but also lawlessness and crass ignorance of the tenets of the law and democratic ethos.

“Tukur displayed his disdain for law and order with his threat to order the arrest of law abiding persons in a democracy.

“We ask what powers he has under our laws to make that statement and what gave him the impression that Nigeria has become a police state where impunity reigns and citizens can be arrested at the whim of any power drunk Tzar.

“Fortunately, our country is a democracy under the rule of law and not under the rule of man. The police and our other security agencies cannot be used to further such agenda as being nurtured in the dictatorial mind of Tukur.