Kabiru Turaki, the newly elected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has announced that his leadership will hold its inaugural National Working Committee (NWC) meeting on Tuesday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Mr Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties, disclosed this while speaking with journalists at the FCT Police Command shortly after he and members of his team met with the Commissioner of Police, Dantawaye Miller.
He said the meeting would bring together governors elected on the party’s platform, members of the National Assembly, the Board of Trustees (BoT), state chairmen, and other key stakeholders.
“We came to have an interface with the Commissioner of Police of the FCT regarding the meeting which we are going to have tomorrow. We are going to have the inaugural National Working Committee meeting of our party.
“At this meeting, we have invited all our stakeholders and founding fathers, invited all our governors and members of the National Assembly, invited members of the Board of Trustees, our State Chairman, and other critical stakeholders. And so, as law-abiding people, we’ve come here to tell the police that we are having our meeting tomorrow. This will be the inaugural meeting since we left Ibadan after our election at our national elective convention,” he said
However, the venue, the PDP national secretariat, is the same location where the Muhammed Abdulrahman-led faction has summoned an emergency NEC and BoT meetings for the same day.
Mr Abdulrahman’s faction is backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu.
During the party’s national convention in Ibadan over the weekend, Messrs Wike, Abdulrahman, Anyanwu, former Ekiti State governor Ayodele Fayose, and seven others were expelled from the party.
Despite this, Mr Anyanwu issued notices for the NEC and BoT meetings in his claimed capacity as national chairman, insisting the expulsion was invalid due to subsisting court orders halting the convention.
Mr Turaki was elected as the new national chairman at the convention.
Turaki rejects faction’s meetings
Mr Turaki distanced himself from the meetings scheduled by Mr Abdulrahman’s faction, insisting that those behind them are no longer members of the party.
“Now, we have seen, flying in the social media, a reported notice of BOT and NEC meeting given by people who, for all intents and purposes, are no longer members of this party, as I’m talking to you today. The decision taken in the national convention overrides every other decision that has been taken by any organ of a party. Our National Convention has taken a decision to expel these elements from the party, and so they are no longer members of our party,” he said.
He added that the actions of the faction had been reported to the police to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
“And so, we have reported the moves they are making to the police, because we don’t want any situation where there will be breach of peace. As leaders, more than any other person, we want peace to be sustained. This democracy that our leaders, our forefathers have sacrificed their lives to bring about to this level, we shall be ready to also give our own life to sustain this democracy,” he added.
Mr Turaki stressed that the party headquarters, popularly known as Wadata Plaza, remains under the control of the newly elected leadership.
“We are holding the meeting in our National Secretariat, which is the Wadata House, and anybody that is sitting there without our consent and permission is an interloper. We have not sought for the assistance of the police or any other security agencies to lock up our offices. So now, we are going there, and we will have the offices open, people will get in there, and then begin to perform the functions for which we will be collective.
“I have assured the Commissioner of Police of the FCT that while we will ensure that no breach of peace occurs, we will go there prepared to defend ourselves and our integrity as Nigerians, because the Nigerian Constitution has given us the right to defend our persons, our lives, our property, so that we are prepared to do.”
“We are ready to defend the PDP with our lives”
The PDP chairman declared that he and other members of the new executives are prepared to defend the party at any cost.
“And let me reiterate again for avoidance of doubt. To defend our party, to defend this nascent democracy, we are prepared to lay down our lives. We will go there, to move into our headquarters, to conduct our official functions, and if anybody tries to prevent us, then we pray for them,” he noted.
He confirmed that the meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m., on Tuesday, with circulars already issued.
“Our meeting is 10 a.m. tomorrow. Circulars have gone out. We shall be there unfailingly. I, as the national chairman of PDP, will be leading from the front, not from the rear. We shall be there tomorrow.
“The CP has given assurance that they will do everything it takes to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order. And that is our expectation from him. So we will be there, hoping that the police will ensure that they give us all the ample protection that we are entitled to under the law. And that assurance has been gotten,” Mr Turaki said.
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