{"id":9006,"date":"2013-08-25T18:40:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T18:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/pdp-to-bar-amaechi-27-lawmakers-from-national-convention\/"},"modified":"2013-08-25T18:40:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T18:40:15","slug":"pdp-to-bar-amaechi-27-lawmakers-from-national-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/pdp-to-bar-amaechi-27-lawmakers-from-national-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"PDP to bar Amaechi, 27 lawmakers from national convention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BARRING any last change of mind, the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and 27 members of the State House of Assembly loyal to him will be stopped from attending the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party slated for August 31, 2013.<\/p>\n

The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt shortly after appearing before the Performance Evaluation Committee of the state PDP.<\/p>\n

It will be recalled that the state PDP had been facing political crisis since April 2013, a development that led to the suspension of the state governor and 27 members of the House of Assembly.<\/p>\n

Wike explained that though he was not going to lead the state delegates of the PDP to the national convention, he was sure that those under suspension would not be part of the event.<\/p>\n

The minister said it would not be possible for any member of the party that had been under suspension to partake in the activities of the PDP until the suspension was lifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that all party chairmen are delegates; I know that House of Assembly members are delegates. Unfortunately, some of our House of Assembly members are suspended. That means they will not be able to participate in the forthcoming PDP national convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are suspended from the party, you cannot be taking part in the activities of the party until your suspension is lifted. So it has nothing to do with me,\u201d Wike stressed.<\/p>\n

On the speculations that he was interested in the governorship position of the state, the minister pointed out that he had not told anybody that he was gunning for such position, adding that his role was to ensure that the PDP wins the state in the 2015 elections.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cAs per governing the state, if we are doing something that is not in line with their plans, they always read meanings to it. Whether anybody wants to govern or not, nobody is stopping anybody. It is God that gives power.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role today is to make sure that PDP still takes the state. That is what we are doing. If that is their view, they can die with the view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never told anybody but if they feel that I am very active in what I am doing to suggest that there is something I want to do, that is their own interpretation. But what I know is that PDP must grow from strength to strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wike told newsmen that he was in the state to honour the invitation from the Performance Evaluation Committee of the state PDP, maintaining that he does not need to disobey the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to disobey the party. If the party invites me to come for them (PDP) to interact with me, I have to honour that invitation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the minister\u2019s position, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Otelemaba Amachree, said the governor and the 27 lawmakers that were suspended were not bothered about the convention\u00a0 coming up on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Amachree, who spoke though his Press Secretary, Mr. Jim Okpiki, noted that the state and party were going through crisis, adding that until the crisis was resolved, it would not be necessary to bother about attending the PDP convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not worried about convention, because we are currently in a crisis. Until the crisis is resolved, we are not bothered about the PDP convention. We are only interested in the return of peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this (not being part of the convention) is one of the sacrifices they (governor and 27 lawmakers) must make to ensure that peace returns to the state and the PDP, they would not go to ruffle anybody\u2019s feathers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Mr. Tony Okocha, told SUNDAY PUNCH<\/i> that the despite the \u201cillegally concocted suspension against the governor,\u201d he (Amaechi) has remained loyal to the party.<\/p>\n

Okocha said, \u201cThe governor\u2019s suspension from the PDP was illegally concocted. One would have thought that they would waive it. But we are not bothered because it is a family matter and we are still loyal to the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Presidency on Friday took a swipe at\u00a0 the newly registered All Progressives Congress, saying its manifesto\u00a0 could not take the nation to the next level as claimed by the party leaders.<\/p>\n

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said this in an interview with one of our\u00a0 correspondents in Abuja.<\/p>\n

The APC had on Wednesday in Abuja unfolded a seven-point cardinal programme.<\/p>\n

The programme includes war against corruption, food security,\u00a0\u00a0 integrated transport network and free education, devolution of power, accelerated economic growth and affordable health care<\/p>\n

Faulting the programmes,\u00a0 Gulak said the opposition party that put security on number 27 on its manifesto could not be said to be serious with the welfare of Nigerians.<\/p>\n

He said since Nigerians were not fools, they won\u2019t entrust their lives to such a party.<\/p>\n

He said it was so sad that opposition party leaders, who were known for their dictatorship, could turn around to say that President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party were not doing well.<\/p>\n

But the APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, while responding to the Presidency\u2019s criticism, said Nigerians had only harvested sorrow and blood from the Jonathan administration.<\/p>\n

He stated,\u00a0 \u201cThe joke\u00a0 is actually on the Presidency as Nigerians have only harvested sorrow\u00a0 and blood from President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s visionless\u00a0 administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulak, in his criticism of the APC, said, \u201cYou can see that they (APC chiefs) are quarrelling over manifesto. It is still inconclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat so-called manifesto can\u2019t take Nigerians to the next level of development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich serious party will put security on number 27 on its manifesto?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are saying the President and the PDP are not doing well and yet they are not talking about the railway that has started working again; they are not talking about the Almajiri<\/i> schools that are enrolling many pupils; and they are not talking about the security challenge that the government is tackling headlong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so sad that opposition leaders don\u2019t think? Who are their leaders? Is it (Bola) Tinubu, who replaced a cerebral person like Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora in the Senate with his wife and appointed his daughter, who is not a trader as Iyaloja of Lagos?<\/p>\n

\u201cNigerians are not fools, they can\u2019t entrust their lives in the hands of people like that. They (the APC leaders) have yet to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0 the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Labour Party\u00a0 criticised APC\u2019s manifesto.<\/p>\n

While APGA suggested that APC should be judged by the performance of its governors, LP said Nigerians should no longer be deceived.<\/p>\n

The factional National Chairman of APGA, Mr. Maxi Okwu, told SUNDAY PUNCH<\/i> that elected public officials should implement party manifestoes and not individual programmes.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cMy position is that we should assess the APC from the performance of their governors. When you assess their governors, you will be able to project how APC is going to look like. You and I have been in Nigeria and to me, there is no obvious difference between the APC, PDP and other political parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the performance of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, and that is personal to him. These days, performance of elected government officials is a matter of individuals and not the parties, as we had in the Unity Party of Nigeria and National Party of Nigeria in the Second Republic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a clear vision of the APC; parties differ from the other in terms of programmes and policies and we are not yet there. The cardinal programme of the UPN was very clear and all the UPN governors went for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now in Nigeria, it is a matter of individual governors and their idiosyncrasies. The party must own the ideology and also the programmes, anybody on the platform of any party must have to conform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Assembly is made up of so many parties and the (other) holier-than-thou party like the APC. They always join the PDP majority to share money in executive session. I expected that being in the opposition, they should walk out and refuse to share in public funds. It happened in the UPN and they walked out when the NPN did something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his reaction, the National Chairman of LP, Mr. Dan Nwayanwu, said the APC lacked the magic power to increase power generation.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cAnybody can claim anything, the implementation and practicality is another matter. The problem we have in power generation and distribution didn\u2019t start today, didn\u2019t start yesterday. It started even when those claiming they will produce 40,000 megawatts were in power and there is no doubt about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo how will they now come back and bring the magic wand with 40,000 megawatts? Nigerians can no longer be deceived. All we should do is for all Nigerians to come together and improve electricity supply. It is their right to claim anything they like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still hitting back at the PDP, Mohammed said, \u201cThe ASUU strike is entering its sixth week with no solution in sight. The entire landscape is dotted with deaths and dangers. Millions of youths are roaming the streets daily aimlessly. Sixty-nine per cent of our people are living below the poverty line. Poverty in the rural areas is 73 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Jonathan\u2019s watch, 40 per cent of Nigerian children are stunted, nine per cent wasted or thin and 23 per cent underweight. Clearly, Nigerians know who is fooling them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in a reaction to the Labour Party, Mohammed alleged that the party was suffering from \u201cvery short and selective memory.\u2019<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThe defunct Alliance for Democracy under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu pioneered the independent power project in 1999 before the Labour Party was even registered as a political party.<\/p>\n

\u201cFashola, another APC governor, is again blazing the trail in captive energy with the opening of two completed IPP of 10 megawatts each in Marina and Ikeja. We have the experience; we have the capacity; we have done it successfully before, so we shall deliver the 40,000MW as promised.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: Punch Newspaper<\/p>\n

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