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Obasanjo, Ogbeh feud splits
PDP
� I won�t resign, vows Ogbeh �
Party revokes suspension of Anenih, Ogbemudia � Why Ogbeh wrote
President
By Tony
Eluemunor,
Paul Mumeh (Abuja)
and
Benson Agwu (Benin
City)
Senior members of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) are divided over the feud between President
Olusegun Obasanjo and the National Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, even as the party
national caucus met last night to reconcile them.
The first National Working
Committee (NWC) meeting could not resolve the impasse.
Some prominent members,
especially from the South West, are said to have berated Ogbeh for writing
the letter, others said the President�s response was an unnecessary
anger.
Those who berated the chairman
insisted that he had unfettered access to the President and should have
advised him ordinarily instead of putting his thoughts in
writing.
But those in support of Ogbeh
also insisted that the man may have exhausted all avenues to get his
thoughts through dialogue, a
development which may have forced him to adopt the channel he eventually
used.
As at Tuesday evening, frantic
efforts were still being made by party chieftains to ensure that the
situation does not degenerate futher.
Some PDP state governors were
said to have left their domain for Abuja on Tuesday to continue in the
effort to resolve the matter.
An enlarged NEC meeting,
comprising the President, vice president, 28 PDP governors, members of the
Board of Trustees (BOT) and state chairmen has been slated for Thursday to
address the growing crisis.
However, there were
conflicting signals on Tuesday about the Thursday meeting as some PDP
chieftains suggested that the anger still boiling in the two combatants
may not abate for any meaningful dialogue to take
place.
But on Tuesday night, a caucus
meeting was held in Aso Rock Villa. In attendance were the President,
Ogbeh, BOT chairman, Tony Anenih, national secretary, Vincent Ogbulafor
and other key officers of the party. The meeting, which started at 3.21
p.m., lasted well into the night, and was still on at press time.
Attempts to elicit comment
from Ogbeh and Ogbulafor before the meeting started were
unsuccessful.
The NWC was scheduled to
reconvene this morning ahead of the enlarged NEC meeting on Thursday. If
however the issues at stake are resolved at the caucus meeting, there may
not be any need to continue with the NWC meeting, a source within the
party hinted.
On Tuesday in Abuja, Ogbeh
told those agitating for his resignation to forget the idea because he
merely wrote a private letter to the President and that the furore it has
generated has not made him to contemplate quitting his post.
A source said the man would
not join issues with Obasanjo and has resolved to complete his tenure due
to end next November.
Meanwhile, additional
information has surfaced to explain why he resorted writing Obasanjo over
the state of the nation. The letter, which indicted the President, was
leaked to the press and is the cause of the present bad blood in the
party.
Sources said frustration over
the party not having a say in government policy or in the running of the
country drove him to put pen to paper, doing so to document his
opposition.
The NWC meeting in Abuja on
Tuesday quashed the suspension of its BOT Chairman Tony Anenih and another
national leader Samuel Ogbemudia, both of the Edo State chapter of the
PDP.
The party noted that
disciplinary measures against national officers are beyond the powers of
state executive committees, and that only the NEC or the national
convention could do such.
A statement signed by PDP
National Publicity Secretary Venatius Ikem stressed: �Pronouncements of
suspension or expulsion of the two officers can only be valid if they are
carried out by NEC or national convention. The said suspension is
therefore ultra vires, null and void�.
Besides, it said the
suspension order was issued by an unrecognised state executive committee,
headed by Simeon Omofunwa, over the relocation of the state secretariat
from Urubi to Uselu Road, Benin City.
The national PDP insisted that
it only recognises the state executive headed by Solomon Aguele since
there has never been a congress dissolving it.
However, Omofuma, leader of a
faction loyal to Governor Lucky Igbinedion, explained in Benin City on
Tuesday that the group went outside the party constitution to suspend
Anenih, Ogbemudia and two
others �because of the numerous offences they
committed�.
Said he: �Some people in this
state feel they have been marginalised in the state because of the
activities of one man and we don�t want that repeat itself. Why we decided
to suspend them this time around is that their offences were too much, so
we did not need to follow the constitution. They violated a court order and
the directives of the PDP National Chairman, Audu
Ogbeh�.
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