The hope of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to reclaim the presidency in the 2019 general election may be a forlorn as foot soldiers loyal to the sacked former party National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, yesterday quit the party for a newly registered Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN).
Citing ‘uncouth and inflammatory’ statements of some loyalists of the party’s National Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, and the last Tuesday’s position of the party that disciplinary action be set up to whip the Sheriff’s people into line, the South-west chieftains of the party said unchecked and ceaseless talks and comments of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State was “disturbing, self-serving and unbecoming” of a party looking for unity.
At the party’s new secretariat situated on Old Ife road, along Airport, Alakia, Ibadan, where MPN and Nigeria’s flag were hoisted with its maize logo, they noted that not only was the inflammatory statements of Fayose worrisome, the latest manhandling of some party chieftains, including a former Senate Leader loyal to Sheriff at the Abuja meeting, further irked their resolve to leave the party enmass.
The South-west Chairman of the group and former Chairman of PDP in Ondo State, Ebenezer Ablabi, flanked by other party chieftains from across the six South-west states and Director-General of the MPN, Adeleke Adekoya, said the South-west PDP was resolute to leave the party for Fayose and his cohorts.
Alabi said though the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment was a surprise to the Sheriff’s group, the group had resolved to work with Makarfi before they began their inflammatory comments.
“We are all aware of the outcome of the Supreme Court judgement which confirmed Makarfi group as the authentic group. We have our reservation on the judgement but we believe in the judiciary and we have the intention of cooperating with the Markafi group before they started making inflammatory comments. They said they wanted to give us amnesty as if we were Boko Haram militants.
“We heard that when Fayose was coming from Abuja, he had a stopover on his way to Ado Ekiti, and said if the judgment had gone the other way, he could have set his party card ablaze. Is that the kind of uncultured party man we are going to work with?
“Last Tuesday also, the duo of Fayose and Omisore went to Abuja and removed the names of the leaders from Southwest, including the name of the Chairman of the party in Ogun State, Bayo Dayo, who belongs to Makarfi’s faction and replaced them with the names of the people who didn’t contest for the office. The standard bearer of the Oyo State governorship election, Senator Teslim Folarin, was also manhandled to the extent that his phone was stolen.
“We thought the outcome of the judgment of the court will teach us a lesson, rather, the party is being taken over by vampires. Now, those of us who believe in the leadership of Sheriff have now decided to move out and join forces with the Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN),” the group stated.
The party was registered in 2012 as Mega Progressives Peoples Party (MPPP) and by July 25 of this month, the name will be officially changed to MPN, they added.
The group refuted the claim that the region belongs to Fayose and his men, adding that the 2019 elections will show that Fayose is not popular in the Southwest.
“We are going to leave PDP for Fayose and his cohort. We want to see if Fayose who says he has the Southwest in his pocket can transform his pocket to electoral victory in 2019,” they groug said.
Corroborating Alabi, Adekoya said Fayose does not represent Yoruba culture, adding that “a cultured Yoruba person would not say the whole Yoruba nation is in his pocket just as Fayose had said ‘Power belongs to the people and not people who are fortunate to have access to government money and boast around’.”
The governors reached the decision late Wednesday night, after consultations with the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, in a meeting of the NGF at the Presidential Villa.
The decision followed ventilations of difficulties faced by the Police, including stagnation of the Police Trust Fund Bill in the National Assembly. The Police boss asked the governors to facilitate its passage by persuading their delegations to the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the call for state police was, yesterday, flayed by former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, who said state police will turn into a weapon of intimidation by governors.
NGF Chairman, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, who spoke with State House Correspondents at the end of the late night meeting, said the NGF will articulate issues raised by the Police boss to the Acting President, with a view to addressing problems faced by the Police.
He said: “We discussed, and we received a presentation from the Inspector-General of Police. He made a presentation to us seeking our support to introduce media outfits, radio, and television for the force and as well for the Police to embrace technology from the current manual ways of doing things.
“The Inspector-General of Police dominated the whole day of our discussion on issues concerning the Police.
“In some countries, the ratio of police to the population is 1:10, but in Nigeria, we have 1:400.
“So, they are having so many difficulties in terms of funding which we agreed that with the way things are going, through the budgeting process, we cannot be able to fund police.
“So, the Inspector-General of Police made us know that there is a Trust Fund Bill which is before the National Assembly and he asked for our support and that of members of the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives.
NGF names committee on State Police
“On our own part, we have put a committee in place. It consists of the governors of Kwara, Imo, Delta, Ekiti, Bauchi and Sokoto states. The committee is to interface with the Committee on Police and take the matter before the Acting President for further action. It is important for our nation.
“Besides this, there is the issue of state police which is being discussed, and we are coming up with so many options. We are expecting the committee will consider safe ways of policing in Nigeria.”
Also speaking to journalists, the IGP said security challenges in virtually all parts of the country were the dominant issue at the meeting, stressing that matters that bordered on security require a collective effort to confront.
He said the essence of the meeting with the governors centred on “our efforts to address some of the challenges in the Police unit.
“We had a fruitful discussion with them, and obviously, all of them are concerned about security in virtually all parts of the country.
“They are ready to support the Police Force to see how we can address some of the challenges.”
On the Acting President’s charge for reinforcements in the security apparatus of the country, he said: “Obviously, it is a normal procedure. When we have challenges, we normally reinforce.
“Having insecurity all over the country requires the participation of every citizen of this country. We have to put our heads together to address all the security challenges.
“The governments are doing well, they are trying to bring communities closer, and I think it takes a long time, but by and large, with the cooperation of community members and all the security agencies, we have met to synergise.”
It’ll bring anarchy — Tsav
Reacting to the proposals on state police, Tsav told Vanguard yesterday:
“If the governors have state police, they will do what they like. What causes problems in our society is injustice. When peoples’ rights are infringed, they go to the Police to seek justice, and when they don’t get justice, a problem arises. We should not make the mistake of allowing the governors to have state police.
“Doing that will amount to looking for trouble. A Police Commissioner will be at the beck and call of a state governor. He will do whatever a state governor wants him to do, and these governors are very desperate and want to remain in power at all costs.
“When they have state Police, they can use it to harass and intimidate their opponents. We are not yet ripe for state police. I think what the governors should do is to support the Police by allowing them to do their job without interference. When we are civilised, we can start thinking about that but not now.”
