PDP Leaders Condemn Action
Police personnel on Saturday blocked access to the venue originally selected by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ratification of former President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate.
The venue, A-Class Event Centre in Maitama, Abuja, became inaccessible after security operatives deployed no fewer than eight police Hilux trucks to barricade both sides of the dual-carriage Kashim Ibrahim Way leading to the facility.
It was gathered that the PDP faction subsequently relocated the ratification ceremony to another venue within the Federal Capital Territory.
Observations showed that police personnel remained stationed at the blocked road several hours after the event had been concluded elsewhere.
Reacting to the development, the factional PDP chairman, Kabiru Turaki (SAN), condemned the action, accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of attempting to undermine democratic processes.
“No matter how highly opinionated they may be about themselves, or no matter how they think that they can use their positions to thwart democracy, we want to tell them that Nigeria is bigger than anybody and any group of persons,” Turaki said.
He added: “We will not fight. The time of fighting will come when we meet at the polls. We will meet you there, we will fight you there, we will defeat you there. And then we will pin you down on the ground. I want to thank our leaders.”
Turaki urged party supporters and delegates to remain peaceful and avoid any form of confrontation despite the provocation.
“I want to plead with our delegates, please go back to your respective destinations. Resist any amount of provocation.
“Any person you see trying to fight, just know that they do not have the chances of winning. We believe we are on the right course. We believe that we are going to win the election. Therefore, fighting is not for us,” he said.
Also speaking, former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, lamented what he described as a return to authoritarian tactics under a democratic government, saying the incident was a setback for Nigeria’s democratic development.
“It is with great pain that I see this situation, that so many years after democracy we are still being reduced to this. I thank God that I am one of the founding fathers of this party, and PDP is a legacy party. We were the ones who did the transition to democracy in Nigeria,” Gana stated.
Recalling negotiations between political leaders and the military government in 1998, he said democratic actors had insisted on the establishment of an independent electoral commission as a condition for participating in the transition programme.
“When we negotiated with the military government in 1998, believe you me, it was so serious that we were not going to agree to be part of a transition programme, as civilian political leaders, unless three things happened.
“And our argument was so serious, our position was so serious. I remember that Dr. Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of the UN at that time, came all the way from New York to chair that meeting between us and the government of the military. The meeting was held at the Nicon Hilton,” he said.
Gana noted that the political class was represented at the talks by the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the late Senator Abraham Adesanya and himself.
“But I am sad, I am very, very sad, that after so many years of development in Nigeria, we are still being reduced to this, under democracy,” he said.
“The first thing we insisted on is that we are not going to be part of the transition programme unless the Electoral Commission became the Independent National Electoral Commission. Unfortunately, after so many years of development, is INEC now independent? No! We insisted, and they agreed.
“That’s how the name came about. Before, we had the National Electoral Commission. We were the ones who said; no, no, we have to have an Independent National Electoral Commission.”
The former minister argued that the electoral body had enjoyed greater independence during the PDP era but had since lost that status.
“Today’s INEC is not independent. Today’s INEC is really a mess. And if you don’t have a good umpire, you can’t have good elections. And democracy cannot survive if you can’t have good elections. That’s why we are here.
“We are supposed to be having a special convention in a very, very well-organised place. Now the police have taken over the whole area. Are we back to military rule? No,” he said.
Gana maintained that Nigerians deserved better governance and said the party’s objective was to present a credible candidate for the country.
“We are gathered for this because we want to have a presidential candidate to lead our struggle,” he added.
