Nigeria: For Peace to Return to PDP, There Must Be Unity Convention - Ugochinyere

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Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo is a house-hold name in the Peoples Democratic Party when it comes to controversy. Some label him as a hatchet man when there are turbulent issues in the party. He is the convener of the Stakeholders Forum in the New PDP. In this interview, he explains why Bamanga Tukur should go and why a new convention should be held.
Excerpts :
PDP National Chairman has threatened to declare vacant the seat of lawmakers who have joined the factional new PDP, what is your take on this?

 

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, 13 September 2013

Tukur (Bamanga Tukur) is already blocking the chances of resolving this matter, this declaration of war is basically a smokescreen to hang on to office because he wants to draw a war. He is scared of peace negotiation which the outcome will be the termination of his deplored unlawful regime and again a fresh unity convention that will create enabling environment.
So, he will prefer to sink the party than allow peace to prevail. But yesterday's comment, I must tell you is one of the things I keep saying that shows that Tukur is not in tune with what is on the ground, because if Tukur is intelligent, he would have read the provisions of the 1999 constitution before boasting that he would declare any body's seat vacant.
Under section 68 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the constitution stipulated grounds upon which someone's seat should be declared vacant. One, if there is recall of the legislator whether at the state or national level, if he is no longer a citizen of his country, if he denies his citizenship, if he decamps to another political party, if he becomes appointed maybe as a Minister or something.
But under the clause, if he decamps to another party there is a proviso, it says provided the man did not decamp to another political party as a result of division or faction in his former political party or as a result of merger. So, now the question is, is there a division in PDP, the answer is one hundred percent yes.
There is a division and before we even get to the decamping, we have not decamped to anywhere, we are still in PDP, playing intra-party politics of saying that we don't recognize you as the leader of this party, you have been removed, if the court will decide and INEC will make their recommendation, so declaring seats vacant does not even come in here.