Party elders move to reconcile Obasanjo, Ogbeh
- Wabara faults Ogbeh on Abia chairmanship
From John-Abba Ogbodo and Alifa Daniel, Abuja
SOME elders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by its Board of Trustees have begun trouble-shooting shuttles over the current face-off between President Olusegun Obasanjo and the party's national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh.
Curiously however, a November 11 letter by Senate President Adolphus Wabara in which he faulted Ogbeh on the chairmanship of the party in Abia State, was released to journalists in Abuja yesterday.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party also yesterday nullified the purported suspension of the chairman of Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih and Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia by a faction of its Edo State chapter.
The Guardian learnt that at the emergency meeting of the NWC held in Ogbeh's office, the national chairman explained to the members the reasons for his letter to Obasanjo which generated a sharp reaction from the President.
According to The Guardian sources, the national chairman reminded the meeting that he had informed them about the content of the letter before writing it.
He was said to have added that the only thing he did not do was to show them the letter before sending it to the President.
it was further learnt that satisfied with the explanation, a decision was taken that some elders of the party should meet with the President last night.
The caucus meeting earlier scheduled for last night was put off since it would be considered inappropriate for the President and Ogbeh to meet without first resolving the problem.
It was also decided that elders in the party should meet Obasanjo last night and prepare ground for the caucus meeting.
The normal NWC meeting of the party will continue today while a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of which both President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar are members, is expected tomorrow.
Meanwhile a November 11 letter by Wabara released to journalists yesterday may have soured the once chummy relationship between him and Ogbeh.
In the letter, Wabara bluntly accused Ogbeh of "inconsistency and double speak."
In contention was the chairmanship of the party in Abia State where Wabara questioned the integrity of Ogbeh in recalling the suspended Abia Chairman, Chief Uzodinma Opara.
Protesting what he described as "the surprise reversal of the full and final decision of the NWC on the former state chairman of our party in Abia State," the Senate President reminded Ogbeh that Opara's suspension was decisively dealt with by a duly constituted 75th NWC meeting of October 21 and 27, 2004 presided over by Alhaji Iro Safana, the party's Deputy National Chairman.
He added: "Nothing from the outcome suggests that the meeting was inconclusive. You may wish to recall that Chief Okpara was not only suspended, but removed for anti-party activities, gross indiscipline and insubordina`tion to the national leadership of the party, among other grievous offences".
Wabara claimed that the PDP chairman himself on July 13, 2004 lamented the indiscipline of Chief Okpara when he declined the invitation of the NWC to attend its meeting.
Wabara wrote further: "Since there is no place where it was recorded that Chief Okpara ever acknowledged the invitation of the NWC on the day in question, I am therefore at a loss at understanding the reason behind the re-visitation of the issue of his removal. Is it, Mr. Chairman, that NWC is impotent without your good self? Or is it that Alhaji Iro Safana was incompetent, as acting chairman, in your absence, to preside over the meeting of the NWC? If not, why the isolation of the Abia case, which, from what I have been able to gather, was not even listed for deliberation on Tuesday, November 9, 2004.
"Mr. Chairman, I believe that without fear of contradiction that the landmark decisions of 75th NWC meetings are sacrosanct. Nothing except motives that are not noble could be the reason behind the purported recall of Chief Okpara. With due respect, I doubt very much if what transpired on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 could stand the test of the virtues of party discipline and cohesion, which you have been espousing lately. I am indeed constrained to make this assertion in the knowledge that several members of the NWC were absent at the said meeting.
"From my estimation, I am of the firm conviction that something is really amiss as to the untidy fashion you single-handedly exhumed a long interred case. Were you hoping to replay the LAZARUS miracle? Coming sadly on a day that a notable Abia son, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, was marking his 60th birthday, it was most unfortunate. What a sordid birthday gift it was for Chief Ugochukwu and the cream of Abia leaders and people who converged in Abuja for the celebration.
"Mr. Chairman, we in Abia State refuse to accept your inconsistencies and doublespeak this second time around. As far as we are concerned, the NWC's decision of October 27, 2004 subsists. We are aware that in your sober moments, you will appreciate why we and all right thinking members of our party cannot accept the charade of Tuesday, November 9, 2004.
"You may therefore wish to make a clean breast of this rather sensitive matter by publicly apologising to aggrieved Abia PDP members whom I have continually asked to remain calm and faithful, as we attempt to roll back this apparent ring of evil that seems to have enveloped our great party."
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