We won’t force Reps to drop impeachment – PDP
PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur
| credits:
THE
Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday said it could not force the
members of House of Representatives to drop their impeachment threat
against President Goodluck Jonathan.
The party said the lawmakers had grievances but that it would intervene in the matter.
Also, the PDP on Thursday washed its hands of the
arraignment of Mahmud Tukur, son of its National Chairman, Bamangar
Tukur. It said Mahmud was an adult that was solely accountable for his
actions.
Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam Jaja,
said this while briefing journalists on behalf of the party’s National
Working Committee.
Jaja, flanked by the party’s National Treasurer, Mr.
Bala Kaoje, said, “Many of them (the House members) are PDP people, I
agree, but they have their grievances.
“We will not also say that (because) they are PDP
people and we will lord it over them. This thing must be attended to
diplomatically, so that wherever anybody has gone wrong it will be
sorted out and eventually this storm will definitely die down.”
The legislators, last week Thursday, derided the poor
implementation of the 2012 national budget and gave the Federal
Government a September 18 deadline for the government to achieve 100 per
cent budget implementation, failure which they threatened to commence
impeachment proceedings against the President.
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, however
said on Wednesday that the House directive was a tall order and that
100 per cent budget implementation by September was an impossibility.
Reacting, the Reps through their spokesman, Zakari Muhammed, said their resolution stood.
“The resolution on impeachment proceedings against
Mr. President by September 18 if budget implementation is not up to 100
per cent stands,” Muhammed had told The PUNCH on Wednesday.
Jaja on Thursday said the PDP was aware that Jonathan
had made some errors deserving of impeachment but that the party would
do all to resolve the present face-off between the lawmakers and the
President.
“It is not a fluke that they (Reps) are not making
any sense, it is not also a fluke that the President is making errors
that require impeachment,” the PDP Deputy National Chairman who told
journalists that he was mandated to speak for the NWC said.
Jaja, however, refused to elaborate on the errors the President had committed.
He spoke further, “At times we overblow these things,
but the party has set up machineries to look into all the grievances of
the members of the National Assembly and the position of the President.
“There must be an area for the two parties to meet
and this thing should be resolved in the interest of democracy in this
country. So, there is no threat actually, as it were, it is the usual
thing that happens in any democratic process.”
On the involvement of members of the party in the oil subsidy scandal, Jaja said the party was not worried.
In particular, Jaja said it would be wrong to condemn
the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, because his son,
Mahmud, is among those facing trial for the subsidy scandal.
Apart from Tukur, Nasir, the son of Dr. Ahmadu Ali, a
former National Chairman of the party was also arraigned in Lagos
courts on Thursday.
Jaja said, “On the issue of some PDP members being
involved in oil subsidy scandal, these are individuals, everybody bears
his own cross.
“There were governors who are now facing prosecution
as a result of their action and inaction, so it is not a party thing.
PDP did not send anybody to go and misbehave. Even if you mention my
chairman’s son, he is up to age, assuming he is to go to jail they will
not come and jail the National Chairman (of PDP), because he did not
send him (his son).
‘He (the son) is a man and he has his household, he
has his family. Everybody accounts for his own position and, of course,
it has been mentioned, until they are proved guilty, they still remain
innocent.
“So, the party cannot just get out and breathe down
on them and begin to condemn them. They will be given equal
opportunities to defend themselves in a competent court of law.”
On the outcome of the NWC meeting, which was held on
Wednesday, he said the party had decided to embark on e-registration of
its members.
He said this was the only way members of the party
could be determined, adding that “what we do now is just to aggregate
the number of our members.”
The NWC meeting, he said, was attended by the
national vice-chairmen of the party from the North-West, North-Central,
South-East, South-West, and South-South.
He said the meeting also agreed that fresh congresses
be held in some states such as Taraba, Ogun, Jigawa, Benue and Ondo,
where he said the congresses formally held there were inconclusive.
The Wednesday meeting of the party was its 313th since its formation in 1998.
Jaja said the party would also celebrate 14 years of
its existence in August, but promised that the celebration would be
low-key.
