The Presidency on Tuesday halted moves by the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to inaugurate a new executive committee for the party in Kano State.
Kano State is one of the seven states whose governors belong to the factional PDP opposed to the leadership of Bamanga Tukur. Governor Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State and his counterparts in Kwara, Sokoto, Jigawa, Niger, Rivers and Adamawa joined a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and other chieftains of the ruling party to float the “new PDP” last August 31.
The splinter group is led by the immediate past acting National Chairman of the PDP, Kawu Baraje. Some senior members of the PDP in Kano State, including a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, and Nigeria’s ambassador to China, Aminu Wali, arrived at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja where the new executive committee was to be inaugurated by Mr. Tukur.
It was gathered that while the party faithful were in the National Executive Committee, NEC, Hall waiting for the ceremony, a presidential aide reportedly got across to the national chairman, Bamanga Tukur, asking him to halt the exercise in order not to jeopardize the ongoing peace talks with the splinter PDP to which the Kano State Governor belongs. Those who thronged the party headquarters are reportedly not in the camp of the governor.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Tukur-led PDP, Olisa Metuh, said he was not aware of the alleged move to inaugurate a new leadership for the North Western state.
He, however, confirmed in a chat with journalists that the party members in Kano were at headquarters to inform the national leadership that the tenure of the previous executive committee expired on August 14. Mr. Metuh added that in order to avoid a vacuum in the leadership of the state chapter of the party, the National Working Committee, NWC, at its meeting on Tuesday, resolved to appoint a caretaker committee for the chapter soon.
He did not, however, indicate if the chairman of the caretaker committee would be appointed from outside the state as is obtained in some states where disagreements exist.
The PDP spokesman also claimed that major stakeholders in the party in Kano State, including the governor, would be consulted in the appointment of the members of the caretaker committee.
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