TUKUR MUST GO - PDP GOVS •Insist on Oyinlola •No automatic ticket for Jonathan, govs - PDP

THE unending multi -faceted crises rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a new turn as the governors elected on the platform of the party were said to have insisted that the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party must go, for peace to reign, pledging absolute loyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Tony Anenih.
“PDP as the leading political party in the whole black race remains solid, we have no crisis ,we are loyal to the leader of the Party, who is also the President and the Commander-in-Chief  of the Armed Forces, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the new Chairman of the BOT, Chief Tony Anenih, in fact, it may interest you to note that President Jonathan is a life member of both the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the recently created PDP Governors’ forum, he is free to attend the meetings of the two organisations, he was a product of the system,that is why we are ready to fight this battle to a logical conclusion,” one the  governors told the Nigerian Tribune in confidence in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, “based on consensus, we the governors produced the National Secretary of the party and we honoured the President to Produce the National Chairman and in the middle of the game Tukur changed the rules of the game and wants to paint us black before the President, nonsense!!!, we are aware of his game plan,we still love PDP,we hope things will change,we hope Mr President will wade in swiftly, our party is in great mess, Tukur is highly respected, but he must go!”.
The source said that the governors have resolved to align with Chief Anenih’s peace move in all the states of the federation for the trust and respect they have for him with his ability to handle the critical era of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo .
This is coming just as it was gathered that the governors have resolved to sack the entire NWC members of the party should Alhaji Tukur refuse to step aside since all attempts to reconcile with him  especially on Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and the Adamawa State Chapter of the party failed.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that already the governors have resolved  to settle for the following prominent members of the party as replacement of Prince Oyinlola. Chief Ebenezer Babatope, former Transport and Aviation Minister and National Director of Mobilization of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Professors Tunde Adeniran, Tahoreed Adedoja and Chief Olusola Oke, the immediate past National Legal Adviser of the Party and governorship candidate in Ondo State.
Meanwhile, National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh has said that the party does not plan to give automatic ticket to President Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential election.
Metuh, who fielded questions from newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the PDP Constitution provides for primaries and that the party intends to comply with the constitutional provision.
The PDP spokesman also denied media reports which indicated that the party was planning to amend its constitution to give the President and governors the right of first refusal to pick automatic tickets.
According to Metuh, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party does not have any power to amend the party’s constitution, adding that as the spokesman of the party, he has not been informed of any such plan.
“It is above the powers of NEC to give right of first refusal to anyone because only the National Convention has such powers. As a national officer of the party, I am telling you that nobody has informed me in the administration of the party. The constitution provides for primaries to hold and you cannot go against the Constitution,” he said.
The PDP spokesman, who also declared that the party was being attacked by external forces, said that the opposition wanted the party dead.
He said: “The National Working Committee (NWC) is under attack by people outside the party; people who are not at the helm of affairs. But we are at peace with the executive, we are at peace with the legislature, we are surprised at the real war against us. We have read a lot of reports of doomsday in the papers and we have seen that those accounts are grossly exaggerated. We want to appeal to Nigerians for more understanding.”
He also said that the party was working at resolving its internal squabbles adding that a committee set up on the Adamawa crisis by President Jonathan was set to submit its report.
Metuh further denied PDP’s involvement in the controversy dogging the registration of the All Progressive Congress (APC) by opposition parties saying that the PDP was waiting for them to get registered.
Metuh further said: “I believe it is better to allow them register the APC. I am surprised that Nigerians are not worried that the opposition is coming together to form a party and their ideology is to take power from PDP.
“The opposition (parties) are going to face challenges of managing a big party and they can’t manage it.  I know what the PDP has managed in the last 13 years. You can be a religious party, ethnic-based party or regional party, you won’t have that problem, but once you become a big party, you have that that problem. Let them become a big party and show Nigerians their incompetence of managing a big party.”
Tribune