PDP crisis: Jonathan can’t remove me, says Tukur

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met again for the second time in three days over attempt to force him to resign before Thursday’s National Executive Council meeting.
But the embattled national chairman has vowed to stay in office, insisting that only the national convention can remove him from office.
He also said that his meeting with the President last night was a routine one and not meant to discuss his resignation as alleged in some quarters.
But an Aso Rock source confirmed that Tukur held a meeting with President Jonathan where the problem confronting the party was discussed.
The President had on Saturday, according to a party source, asked Tukur to honourably resign, but the national chairman was adamant.
In a telephone inteview with National Mirror yesterday, the party chairman also dismissed the allegation that he had been asked to resign by the President, accusing the opposition of “planting” the story to create disharmony in the party.
Tukur said: “I am an elected national chairman. I have my certificate of return, I cannot resign. The convention brought me, so it has to take the convention that brought me for me to resign.
So, not even the President can ask me to resign. “Remember, some members of the NWC were asked to go recently because the election that brought them was flawed, so Mr. President cannot tread that route again.”
He insisted that there was no basis for him to resign as no one had successfully proved any allegation of wrongdoing against me.
National Mirror learnt that Tukur had on Sunday met with deputies to the NWC members with the instruction that he was willing to work with them if their bosses were not ready to support him.
The meeting infuriated nine out of 12 members of the NWC who boycotted yesterday’s scheduled meeting and chose to hold a parallel meeting in another location.
But Tukur denied ever meeting with the deputies. “I did not meet with the deputies but you know, everybody comes to my residence and I meet with all sorts of people and groups.
So there is no basis for such allegations.” While Tukur’s NWC had met in the NWC Hall, the G-9 NWC members met in a private residence of one of them.
In attendance at the Tukur- led NWC were the National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo and the National Auditor, Alhaji Adeyanju.
The G-9 meeting presided by the Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus, was attended by the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh; the National Organising Secretary, Abubarkar Mustapha; the Legal Adviser, Victor Kwom; the Woman Leader, Kema Chikwe, the National Youth Leader, Garba Umar, and others.
A member of the NWC told National Mirror: “I heard that three members of NWC met with Tukur but because they lacked quorum, they therefore could not continue but I can tell you that other meetings are going on and President Jonathan is aware of the outcome.”
Metuh, however, said that he had not attended any meeting. In a related development, a principal lawyer of the ruling party, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, has written President Jonathan, asking him to halt the reported plan by the board of trustees to sack Tukur.
In the letter dated January13, Oluyede stated that Tukur could not be removed based on a subsisting valid court order of a Federal High Court, Abuja, issued on April 25, 2013. He warned that whoever took any role in the purported plan stood the risk of being jailed.
In the suit referred to by him and filed on behalf of the PDP against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Justice Adamu Bello had ordered parties to maintain the status quo by not taking actions that would lead to the removal of the then national officers.
The party had gone to the court for a declaration that the tenure of the national officers elected at the 2012 national convention could not be truncated.
This was after the INEC alleged irregularity in the election, saying that the nominations of the officers who were unopposed at the convention were invalid because they were affirmed by voice votes instead of “open secret ballot”.
The legal practitioner stated that he wrote the letter to Jonathan because he was the constitutional leader of the PDP and that that he (Jonathan) allegedly attended the BOT meeting where the plan to remove Tukur was hatched.
The letter reads: “My attention has been drawn to reported proceedings of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, which culminated in the decision to remove Dr. Bamanga Tukur from the position of Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“This removal is to be achieved either by pressurising him to resign or by some vote of lack of confidence to be procured against him at a planned National Working Committee meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“This letter is addressed to you because you are the constitutional leader of the PDP and it was reported that you were in attendance at the BOT meeting. “That order is still subsisting, valid and binding on the PDP and INEC till date and especially as at the time the BOT meeting decided to procure the removal of Dr. Bamanga Tukur.
“The position of Nigerian law is that anyone, though not directly bound by the an order of court, who aids or abets the negation of such an order is liable for criminal contempt and all contemptuous actions taken by contemnors are null and void and liable to be set aside by the court.” Oluyede said he decided to write the President to forestall a breakdown of law and order and to prevent the PDP from falling into a booby trap.
“In the circumstance, we find that the deliberation by the BOT on a plan to remove the National Chairman of the PDP and the decisions and resolutions reached at that meeting are null and void and anything built on it will be equally null and void.
“More importantly, we must point out that INEC, which is a party to the proceedings in which the order was made, cannot recognise any new appointment or installation of a replacement for Dr. Tukur, arising from the decision taken at the said BOT meeting or that of any other organ of the party during the subsistence of the order for status quo.
“This would mean that any nomination forms submitted or signed by such a replacement would be equally null and void. The ramifications of this chain of illegalities are easy to imagine.
“We have written, inter alia, to draw your attention to the taint this illegal process could be on an otherwise legitimate nomination process for the candidates of the PDP at the forthcoming general elections.
“This can be avoided now by mere attention to detail and compliance with due process. “Due process in the circumstances dictates that any legitimate demand for the termination of Dr. Tukur’s tenure as National Chairman of the PDP be subjected to the procedure and processes prescribed by the constitution of the party for removal, only after the court has determined the pending action or otherwise vacated the subsisting order aforementioned.”

FROM  National Mirror: