TheNewsGuru

Tag: Convention

  • Gov. Okowa heads PDP convention committee again

    The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday inaugurated the National Planning Committee to conduct its Dec. 9 national convention.
    The committee headed by Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta was inaugurated by the Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the party, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, in Abuja.

    At the ceremony, Makarfi announced that the committee would take full charge of the convention and ensure that the process was free, fair and not hijacked by any individual or group.

    Makarfi called for support for the committee, and urged members of the party to cooperate with the members to build a stronger PDP.

    He noted that political big-wigs were defecting to PDP and assured of free and fair platform for all.

    Speaking on behalf of PDP Governors, the Governor of Taraba, Dairus Ishaku, said that the party had done a lot for the country and that it was time to work hard and return it to power for further development.

    Ahead of the convention, Ishaku reminded party members that only one person would occupy an office at a time.

    He urged aspirants who would come victorious at the convention, to work with other contestants to keep the party united.

    In his remarks, Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT), Sen. Walid Jibril, said that the board did not have any favourites.

    He said that the BOT was ready to work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure a hitch-free convention.

    Responding, Chairman of the convention committee, Okowa, appreciated the party for the confidence vested in the committee.

    He said that the convention was only four days away and that there were lots to be done.

    Okowa expressed confidence in the capacity of the committee members, assuring party members of a free and fair convention.

    NAN

  • 2019: PDP will come out better, stronger after convention – Jonathan

    2019: PDP will come out better, stronger after convention – Jonathan

    …lauds Wike for embarking on people oriented projects

    Former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will emerge better and stronger after successfully conducting its December 9 National Convention.

    The former president said this while addressing journalists after a visit to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, at the Government House Port Harcourt on Sunday.

    He said that an elected National Working Committee will set in motion the preparation for the 2019 General Elections.

    In his words: “God willing, we will go through the National Convention and the party will become solid.

    “You know we have a Caretaker Committee. When you have a Caretaker Committee, you are not as strong as a fully elected chairman. The party passed through some challenges. Luckily for us, we have passed through that phase with the pronouncement of the Supreme Court.

    “We want to formally elect the officials of the party that will lead the party to the 2019 elections. I am very hopeful that on the 9th of December we will elect our leaders.”

    Commenting on the performance of Governor Wike, the former president described him as one of Nigeria’s best in terms of project delivery and policies.

    He said: “He is one of the best governors in terms of commitment, in terms of putting structures on ground, in terms of coming up with creative policies.

    “He met certain structures, he has improved on them and he has built new roads and infrastructure. I was even asked to come and commission one of the roads. That is why people call him Mr Projects. He has been accepted by Nigerians as a performing governor.”

    The former president thanked Mr. Wike and the Rivers State Executive Council for attending the funeral of his brother-in-law at Okrika.

     

  • PDP names 11 Govs, others to organise convention

    The national Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has set up fourteen committees that will organise the party’s December 9 national convention in Abuja.

    All the 11 governors elected on the platform of the party are members of the committees, which were announced by the National Organising Secretary, Senator Abdul Ningi, in Abuja on Friday.

    The fourteen committees are made up of 1,706 members.

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State will lead the 87-member Convention Planning Committee.

    The largest committee is that of Entertainment and Welfare, which has 248 members followed by the Venue and Protocol Committee with 238 members.

  • Buhari’s fragile health, absence stalls APC’s convention

    …as party appoints Gov El-Rufai chairman of its restructuring committee

    The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari’s health condition and his subsequent medical vacation in London, United Kingdom is largely responsible for the delay in holding its mid-term non elective convention.

    The APC however stated that plans for the convention will begin July 29.

    The party also set up a nine-member committee headed by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to work out a “shared understanding” of what it meant by restructuring as contained in its manifesto to give a clearer understanding of the issue.

    Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman and Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari who addressed reporters at the end of a meeting between the governors elected on the platform of the party and the National Working Committee (NWC) however said the party chiefs would meet with the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to fix a date for the convention.

    He explained that in view of the relationship between the executive and the legislature and the need to forge a cordial relationship within the hierarchy of the party, principal officers of the National Assembly would henceforth be part of the regular meeting with the party’s leadership.

    He said: “We discussed a number of issues ranging from congresses, which will commence on Saturday to elect two delegates for the convention. We discussed the issue of the relationship between the governors and the National Assembly and the need to have this meeting between the principal officers of the National Assembly, the governors and the party.

    “We have been on this issue of mid convention for sometime. But you know that the President is the leader of this party and before getting to the convention, there is a process. First, the NWC must agree on the time and we have to adopt the report of the NWC to the NEC and the President must be in attendance as the leader.

    “You know the situation of our President today. We have been fixing time, but because of his illness, we have not been able to hold the convention. But we have to put a process in place so that we can hold the mid-term convention.

    “It is not an elective convention and the three delegates to be elected on Saturday, July 29 will be the delegates for convention, which will fill some of the existing vacancies. This convention has nothing to do with the PDP.

    “We have agreed collectively that we are going to meet the Acting President. But you should understand that he is acting in the capacity of the President of the country as well as Vice President. Tomorrow, he is going to perform the function of Vice President as Chairman of National Economic Council and the entire issue of security, the economy and administration lies on him.

    So, you cannot take him as a small man to deal with because he is two in one. We will meet with him to discuss other issues as well as the issue of convention. We are not saying anything different from what we have decided earlier in the issue of convention.”

    Yari said the meeting discussed also the Osun senatorial election which the party lost, adding that the meeting set up a committee made up of governors and members of the NWC to look into the issue with a view to ensuring that there is no repeat of such in future.

    “Let me say it is a wake-up call on how to deal with things like that in future. We are in a democratic setting and Adeleke is from APC and his late brother is from APC and we all know what happened. We have discussed that extensively and measures have been taken to avoid future occurrence.”

    National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi said a committee to be headed by El-Rufai would define what the party meant by restructuring.

    The 10 members of the committee are El-Rufai (Chairman), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano), Simon Lalong (Plateau) and Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Oserheimen Osunbor, Sen. Osita Izunaso, Hajiya Fatima Bala and Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Secretary).

     

  • PDP to hold non-elective convention August 12

    The 74th National Executive Committee (NEC)‎ of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tuesday approved August 12 for the party’s Non-Elective Special National Convention billed to hold in Abuja.

    The N‎EC also mandated the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party to immediately set Standing Disciplinary and Reconciliation Committees.

    Briefing journalists at the end of the NEC meeting, the party National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye argued that there was no adequate time for the National Caretaker Committee to organize ‎an elective convention.

    He explained that while the tenure of the committee was to elapse on August 16, 2017, the time was not enough to meet the constitutional requirements (21 working days) for holding an elective convention.

    “When you want to hold an elective national convention, there must be a length of notice to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and other things.

    “But we cannot meet such conditions anymore because there’s no time. But non-elective convention does not require such.

    It only requires a short time notice to INEC. “So we need a special non-elective ‎convention to settle all the constitutional matters,” he stated.

    Adeyeye further disclosed that proposals for the party’s constitutional amendment have been circulated to ‎party members from national to the ward level in order for them to study and make recommendations, noting that the party leadership is concerned about the issue of internal democracy.

    “Constitution amendment will deal decisively with the issue of discipline, internal democracy and administrative bottleneck,” he stressed.

    The party also announced the dissolution of the caretaker committees set up by Senator Modu Sheriff in Benue and Jigawa States, adding that “Benue and Jigawa States had no issues but when Sheriff got the Court of Appeal judgment, he set up caretaker committees in those states.

    In attendance were governors of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Udom; Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta)‎; Ishaku Darius (Taraba); Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti) . Others were former governors of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam; Jonah Jang (Plateau); Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Ramalan Yero (Kaduna) ; Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto) ; ex-National Chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, immediate past Senate President, David Mark; Senate Minority Whip, Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda, former PDP national chairman, Ahmadu Ali, former acting national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, ex-minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki; former minister of National Planning, Professor Suleiman Abubakar, former National Women leader, Josephine Anenih and a host of others.

  • PDP crisis: Sheriff, Makarfi in war of words over proposed convention

    …There’s no going back on the convention – Sheriff faction

    …We won’t be surprised if you do, illegality is your watchword – Makarfi faction

    The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and the Chairman of the party’s National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi have engaged themselves in unending war of words over the conduct of the party’s national convention.

    While Sheriff insisted that he would go ahead with the plan to hold the convention, Makarfi said doing so would prejudice the outcome of the ongoing litigation over the leadership of the party at the Supreme Court.

    The Makarfi group has approached the apex court, asking it to nullify the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which nullified the election of the caretaker committee.

    The judgment of the appellate court, which restored the leadership of Sheriff, has been used by the former governor of Borno State to gain access to the party’s national secretariat.

    This has been criticised by the Makarfi group, saying the Police refused to open the secretariat for it when it won at the Federal High Court.

    It alleged that the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government was behind the Sheriff faction, adding that the Police ought to have waited till the determination of its appeal at the Supreme Court before opening the gates to the secretariat for any of the factions.

    But Sheriff, who spoke through his deputy, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, said that the plan for the convention would go on despite the case.

    He, however, said the planned National Executive Committee meeting of the party, earlier scheduled to hold early in the week, was shelved because of the case, which comes up today.

    He said the party, under the leadership of the former governor of Borno State, was meeting with its lawyers for what he described as strategy.

    Ojougboh stated, “We are progressing with the plan to hold the convention, even though we have postponed the NEC meeting because we are meeting with our lawyers over the case which comes up at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

    “The postponement of the NEC meeting is strategic because we need to put heads together to challenge the appeal by the renegade group in our party.

    “We are sure of winning the case because the court is a temple of justice and we expect no less than that.

    “The law is blind and when its principles are faithfully applied, justice will be fully served. We are absolutely optimistic that justice will be served because no one owns the court.”

    He denied an insinuation that the NEC meeting was cancelled because of the fear that it could be boycotted by the majority of its members.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that efforts made by former President Goodluck Jonathan to reconcile the two factions have also met a brick wall as Sheriff and members of his team walked out of the meeting called by the former President to resolve the crisis.

    But Makarfi said he would not be surprised if Sheriff decided to go ahead with the convention, maintianing that such an action would be unfortunate.

    The former governor, who spoke through a member of the caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye, on Wednesday, stated that the Sheriff group was known for taking the law into its own hands.

    He said, “We won’t be surprised if they go ahead with their so-called national convention.

    “Don’t forget that the case on the leadership is still pending at the Supreme Court, yet they said they want to go ahead; that is lawlessness.

    “Are they assuming that they are going to win the case or what? If they now lose, what happens? Let them go ahead with their illegality.

    “We are not surprised because they are used to illegality. So, let them continue, but we know it won’t last.”