Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Bamanga Tukur took the battle to his opponents yesterday, vowing to ensure that governors are suspended.
National Assembly members who joined the Abubakar Baraje-led breakaway faction are to lose their seats, the chairman said.
Other PDP chieftains who joined the faction would be expelled from the ruling party, he said.
But, Baraje head of the new faction replied Tukur, saying he is unfit for his position.
At a press conference he addressed at the party's secretariat, Tukur described leaders of the breakaway faction as impostors, saying security agencies have been detailed to treat them as such.
He said: "Consequently, we shall ensure that any person who is not duly elected into any leadership position in our great party and has not been duly assigned any role but goes ahead to arrogate such to himself will be made to face the full wrath of the law.
"Similarly, all persons elected on the platform of our great party at all levels who identify with these enemies of the oneness and greatness of our party shall have their seats declared vacant as required by law.
"We shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that such persons and indeed any other individual who attempts to subvert the leadership of the PDP shall reap in full, the consequences of such actions".
Stating that the PDP has no faction, Tukur said there was no reason whatsoever for such a claim under any guise.
"The PDP has only one duly elected National Executive Committee (NEC) under my chairmanship. I wish, therefore, to state with all emphasis that any group of persons parading themselves as leaders of NEC or any other organ of our party are impostors and I urge all Nigerians, especially the security agencies and other institutions of democracy, to regard them as such.
"Let me state categorically that the PDP as the sole custodian of the sacred mandate of over 160 million Nigerians and which in the last 14 years has lifted high the banner of democracy will not fold its arms while some undemocratic and unpatriotic elements destroy our common destiny by causing divisions and confusion among the people."
"There is only one lawfully recognised PDP and I am firmly in charge," Tukur declared.
According to Tukur, the PDP has adequate mechanism for internal conflict resolution and advised aggrieved party members to exploit such mechanism.
In his reaction, Baraje, who spoke with news men said: "With what he said, it shows that Tukur is unfit, incapable and totalitarian. The earlier they take him out, the better for Nigeria and PDP. As far as we are concerned, there is no person or thing like Bamanga Tukur again in PDP.
"By saying that they want to use the security agencies to deal with us, Tukur has also confirmed the level of impunity, lawlessness, recklessness and ignorance in PDP.
"With his declaration, it means the police have become puppets in the hands of his group. Let them come and deal with us; we are waiting for them.
On the status of the New PDP, Baraje said "it is legal; there is no cause for alarm."
He added: "As far as we are concerned, the court has recognized us and directed that the status quo be maintained. His press conference is subjudice to the order of the court. Let them continue to make more blunders."
Regarding plans to declare the seats of 22 Senators and 57 members of the House of Representatives vacant, Baraje said: "It shows that Tukur does not know anything about the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.
"You can see that all our complaints against Tukur are genuine. He is a symbol of intolerance, recklessness, politics of exclusion and over and above all, ignorance.
"How can a national chairman of a party say that he would declare the seats of lawmakers vacant? Does he have the power? This is sheer ignorance."
"To wake up and say he is going to recall people or declare their seats vacant showed he is ignorant. He is not fit to be called the national chairman of the PDP."
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven governors elected on the platform of the PDP on Saturday, launched a breakaway faction of the party.
The seven Governors are: Rotimi Amaehi (Rivers); Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).
Baraje was named the chairman of the faction. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola was made secretary.
The former deputy chairman of the Tukur-led PDP, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, is the deputy chairman of the "new PDP".
Members of the National Assembly have also been embracing the faction in their numbers.
Baraje said the group was forced to leave the Tukur-led PDP as a result of series of arbitrary actions and dangerous permutations by Tukur, with President Goodluck Jonathan's backing.
He also listed arbitrary suspension of notable members of the party, adding that the PDP has lost focus.
Similarly, there are strong indications last night that President Goodluck Jonathan may call the bluff of the seven aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Dr. Jonathan, who reportedly got angry at a meeting with PDP governors loyal to him on Tuesday night, asked them not to lose sleep over the party's crisis.
It was also learnt that some forces in the Presidency are viewing with suspicion the peace moves initiated by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo because the aggrieved governors are seen as his "die-hard" loyalists.
The peace meeting called by the ex-President is scheduled for tomorrow in Abuja.
The President is said to have rejected Obasanjo's peace moves.
A source, who spoke with our correspondent last night, said: "The President, after going through some security reports on the crisis, got angry and told the governors, 'we will not lose sleep. Those who ignited the fire should go and quench it'.
"It is obvious that the Presidency is already closing in on those pulling the strings to divide the PDP ahead of the 2015 poll.
"I think the Presidency may damn the consequences. The next few weeks might be for dirty politics. There is a likelihood of tit-for-tat politics."
A close aide to the president faulted Obasanjo's intervention in the crisis.
"It is good that the current happenings are unfolding at this time; we now know those who are doing what, those who have been hiding their faces while creating problems – including security crises for the government. The government is studying the situation and will respond at the appropriate time."
Obasanjo and the governors are battling to prevent President Jonathan from contesting election in 2015, the aide alleged, adding: "But the President will contest 2015 election and his achievements will speak for him.
"Those who are calling for revolution should better start preparing for it because President Jonathan will contest the election; Nigerians will decide his fate and not Obasanjo and the six or seven governors. Those calling for war should start preparing now," he said
Source: The Nation
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