Tukur, Baraje in war of words

The ruling by a Federal High Court, Abuja
affirming Alhaji Bamanga Tukur's leadership of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has
sparked a fresh row between the Tukur and the
Abubakar Baraje factions.
In separate statements shortly after the
judgment was delivered, the two factions
renewed their media war.
Reacting to the judgment, the National
Publicity Secretary of the Tukur-led PDP, Chief
Olisa Metuh, said henceforth, any group or
persons parading themselves as leaders of a
faction of the PDP would be treated as
impostors and criminals.
But the Baraje faction responded by saying
that despite the judgment, it has every right to
continue using the PDP flag, symbol and
colours as bonafide members of the party.
In a statement shortly after the ruling, Metuh
said: "Henceforth, the leadership of the PDP
will no longer tolerate or condone any
meeting, utterances, press statements and/or
activities whatsoever under the name, flag and
colour of the PDP by any unauthorised person
or group(s) under any guise.
"As a law abiding party, the PDP remained
calm in the face of the unwarranted attacks of
the last few months. Our leaders chose the
path of caution and decorum but our
reconciliatory moves and offer of olive branch
were treated with the highest disdain and
viewed as signs of weakness.
"The National Working Committee has
therefore directed that the name, colour, flag
and the provisions of the constitution of our
party must be held sacrosanct by our
members."
In his own statement, the National Publicity
Secretary of the Baraje faction, Chukwuemeka
Eze, vowed that the faction would pursue its
case against Tukur up to the Supreme Court.
Eze said: "Let us reiterate that we will see this
issue to a logical conclusion, including going to
the Supreme Court, if necessary, to ensure that
a non-member of our party does not continue
to lord it over us as our national chairman.
"Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and his loyalists should
therefore, not celebrate yet as any such
celebration would be short-lived, as we are
more than ever determined to show him the
way out of the exalted position he is illegally
occupying."
Metuh reflected that the challenges the Tukur-
led PDP faced in the last few months, instead
of detracting the party, had better positioned
it to continue to win elections at all levels in
the country.
He reminded the factional members that the
PDP has adequate internal mechanism for
resolution of disagreements and advised them
to channel their grievances to the appropriate
organs of the party.