by Stanley Azuakola
The PDP national chairman, Bamanga Tukur and national secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, have been at loggerheads. That is the press version.
The official PDP version however, is that the party had some “administrative lapses,” which have now been resolved.
The party’s national secretary, Olisa Metuh, who addressed journalists at the party secretariat, said that as a young administration, the Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC) was bound to have some problems but that they have all been resolved.
“There have been administrative errors in the party because this is a new NWC. When a new administration comes on board, it takes some time to settle. The commotion has made everybody to sit up. We are totally committed to ensuring that this does not happen again. We have learnt our lessons but will not allow party faithful to be embarrassed again. There is no question of division or camp in the NWC. All members are completely loyal to the president.”
The loggerheads/administrative lapse started when the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, rejected Tukur’s memo of reform initiatives. He had wanted to reshuffle some of the party’s directors, especially those who have spent more than eight years in office and seen to be very corrupt.
Then Oyinlola had on May 14, wrote a letter to all state chairmen of the party urging them not to have any correspondence with the office of the national chairman, but to direct all correspondences to his office. Oyinlola also openly accused the chairman’s aides of setting the party and governors elected on its platform on a collision course. He declared their actions in office illegal, null, and void.
Oyinlola followed it up with an internal memo to the principal secretary of the chairman, Habu Fari, stating that Fari was usurping his powers by writing and sending external correspondence. He accused Fari of being on a vengeance mission because of the circumstances that led to his sack when he was the pioneer national administrative secretary of the party.
At this point, Tukur took offence with Oyinlola’s actions. He mandated Fari to respond to Oyinlola.
