Violence and bloody confrontation reigned supreme at the Court Road secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the northern Nigerian city of Kano Monday afternoon as members of the PDP and the New PDP clashed during the inauguration of Zonal Committees by the Hassan Kefayos-led Kano PDP Caretaker Committee. Political thugs suspected to be loyal to the New PDP stormed the party secretariat at about 1:30 P.M. when armed thugs stormed the party secretariat hitting people with clubs, horns, knives and other dangerous weapons, said an eyewitness.
The chairman of Kano PDP Caretaker Committee, Hassan Kefayos formed Zonal Committees as provided by the constitution of the party. The attack happened immediately after the committees were inaugurated around 1:30pm, Monday. When they were about to do the closing prayer some three unidentified young men forced themselves into the venue and disrupted the meeting while stabbing people with knives and other local weapons, the eyewitness added.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the caretaker committee, afar Sani Bello, who spoke to Pointblanknews.com from a Kano hospital, he received a first-degree knife stab on the neck. I can confirm to you that so many people were wounded. I was quite unconscious at that time. Right now, I am taking treatment. The whole thing remains a shock to me and I still do not believe that some people can get so violent in this modern age. It is unfortunate; but I assure you that both the security agencies and the party apparatus will investigate this incident and bring the culprits to book, afar stated. Kano state commissioner of Police, Musa Daura who confirmed the incident to reporters said already, four people have been arrested in connection to the attack.
The PDP was having a session of meeting when some political thugs came to disrupt the meeting in pretence that they wanted to be part of the meeting; and they were armed with dangerous weapons. Security agents saw that they were carrying arms and they were surrounded and arrested. So far, four people have been arrested and investigation is ongoing, Daura stated.
Pointblanknews.com recalls that on September 23, signals from the volatile city of Kano Sunday night indicate that the current crisis rocking the ruling PDP could snow-ball into bloody confrontation emerged as Elders Committee of the New PDP in Kano
chided the Bamanga Tukur National Leadership for raping democracy and
militarizing the party.
They also showed their anger over the decision of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) and Board of Trustees (BOT) leaderships to consent to automatic ticket for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Briefing Press Men after their meeting, Ambassador Kabiru Rabiu accused Bamanga Tukur and Chief Tony Anenih of raping democracy.
In a Communiqu signed by Ambassador Kabiru and the Kano New PDP Elders’ Committee Chairman, Alhaji Datti Wudiliwa, they said the Bamanga Tukur-led leadership, “is unpopular and has been a disaster for the party as he (Bamanga) pursues the policy of personal loyalty. And that policy will split our great party and will divide the governor’s ranks.
We the elders of the party and the entire PDP family in Kano state, with one voice are saying NO to the breach of PDP constitution wherein mercenaries have been put in place to discipline our members. We believe in the Rule of Law and the political structure
of Nigeria and that of PDP which are based on the Rule of Law. But we are saying NO to politics of divide-and-rule. Our loyalty and that of our Governor is to the New PDP. They also vowed to pursue and protect the interest of Kwankwaso with the last drop of their bloods.
Strongly condemning Bamanga Tukur’s leadership style, they said: We have noted with grave concern the way and manner the party is being run by the National Working Committee under the leadership of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Their actions in recent past are undemocratic, autocratic, selfish and military-like. The constitution of the party, sacred as it is supposed to be, was thrown to the dogs and actions were/are taken on the whims and caprices of leadership and his principal.
They also opposed automatic ticket for President Goodluck Jonathan and registered their disppaointment over a statement credited to Chief Anenih in that regard.
The statement credited to the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih that President Goodluck Jonathan and some Governors be given automatic ticket to contest in 2015 elections is not only undemocratic but a glaring case of contempt of court because there are existing court judgments in this case: Atiku Abubakar vs Peoples Democratic Party.
The PDP policy of consensus arrangements and adoption rather than transparent election to produce candidates for all elective offices including presidency is totally unacceptable to us. It may be recalled that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was repeatedly in court to challenge this undemocratic arrangement, and that the court ruled that the policy is alien to the PDP and Nigerian
constitution.
More often than not, actions are taken in a rush without due regards to the party constitution, as it is the case of Governor Wammako of Sokoto state who was suspended and that decision was vacated few days later. The suspension of Governor Amaechi is a clear case of rape of democracy. He was accused on a very trivial issue and was suspended from the party by Mamanga Tukur without giving him opportunity to defend himself.
The Kwankwaso loyalists also recalled that, the election of the chairman of the Governors Forum (NGF) of May 24, 2013 turned out to be such a rancorous affair that it ended up splitting the party right down the middle. Chief Rotimi Amaechi was elected under free and transparent election; but David Jonah Jang who the presiding officer said had lost the election is now claiming to be the chairman. He went ahead and opened a secretariat presumably with the support of the presidency.
During inauguration of his secretariat, 16 Governors were in attendance. This confirmed that in truth, Amaechi actually scored 19 votes. Never in the history of democracy has the minority rule the majority,†they noted, adding that, most Nigerians believe that the presidency engineered the crisis and is happy with it because it has a score to settle with Amaechi.
They, however, declared total loyalty to Governor Kwankwaso, and pledged to, “support his position with regards to the Northern state Governors Forum, Nigeria GovernorsForum. We are proud of our governor and all his achievements and what ever happened to him affects us all and the entire New PDP family in Kano state. We are ready to defend our able, dynamic and charismatic Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso even with the last drop of our blood.
They also disowned a Care-taker Committee in the state set up by the PDP National Headquarters, describing it as undemocratic, null and void. When the tenure of the state party executive expired, we wrote to the party headquarters requesting for fresh election. A date was fixed for the exercise but we waited for the Abuja delegation, but they didn’t come. The next thing we heard was that a Care-taker Committee has been set up to over-see the affairs of the party in Kano state. This is totally unacceptable and we are challenging it in court, they explained