by Tutu Akinlabi

Despite suffering several defeats in court, the Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has maintained a strong front.

The party revealed that it is currently preparing to welcome 5 more governors into its fold to join the 7 currently on its side. The “New PDP’ has also asserted its position on current PDP Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, saying it would not rest until Tukur vacates that office.

As regards the judgment of a Federal High Court which last week declared it illegal, the new faction has said that it would obey the court but would convene a meeting to strategize on the next course of action available to it.

Baraje stated:

“As a group that has a lot of respect for the judiciary, we have accepted the ruling in good faith and wish to abide by it. Even so, we have directed our legal team to appeal the judgment, as a matter of urgency, as we remain convinced that we have a good case and are thus determined to ensure that Tukur and his cohorts are not allowed to hold sway as the leaders of our great party.”

The Sun reports:

Baraje, who just returned from the Holy Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, disclosed that he has convened an emergency meeting of the G7, stakeholders and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the New PDP to exhaustively discuss the new developments and chart the way forward, as there is no going back on the struggle to rescue PDP from the “hands of usurpers.”

He said: “Apart from deciding on the Federal High Court ruling and the challenges facing us a group, the G7/stakeholders/NWC meeting slated for this week is expected to deliberate on how five more governors of PDP that have indicated interest to join the Baraje leadership will be received in the fold.”

The factional national chairman denied media reports of a crack in its camp and declared that his group was determined to remove the Tukur-led NWC it described as undemocratic elements.

He said: “Let us reiterate that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, reflected in a section of the media, of division and disunity among our governors and National Assembly members because of our current travails, the fact remains that instead of division, our current travails have strengthen us the more and act as a unifying factor that have shown us that it is a matter of time that the undemocratic elements that have seized our party will be dislodged.

“Meanwhile, we feel nothing but pity for Alhaji Tukur and his NWC, who are already gloating over their ‘victory’ over us and even had the temerity to describe us and our governors as criminals. By being so uncouth in addressing governors duly elected by Nigerians, Tukur and his disciples have once more vindicated our struggle to flush out these unholy undemocratic elements from our party.

“We are confident that this is one mission, which we shall successfully accomplish, by the grace of God, not minding the use of state security agencies to harass and intimidate our people.”