New PDP Rep members dare Tukur

Some  House of Representatives members  supporting  the New Peoples Democratic Party have challenged the Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamaga Tukur, to  carry out  his threat of declaring  their seats vacant.

One of the aggrieved  lawmakers, Mr. Sekonte Davies, in a statement issued on behalf of his colleagues,  on Thursday  said that  Tukur lacked the    powers to  carry out the threat.

He said,  “The PDP was founded on the principle of national consensus-building and to be a platform for  uniting the various sections and interests in the country.

“The nation was going adrift and well-meaning leaders and patriots decided to form  an  all-embracing political party which every Nigerian will be proud to belong to and to provide a nexus for nation building.”

Davies maintained that both the  1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act did not empower Tukur to declare their seats vacant.

He added, “From all relevant sections of these laws and as severally pronounced by the Supreme Court, you cannot declare anybody’s seat vacant ,especially when there is a division in the  party.

“We don’t know when disagreements within a political party become a state offence such that he  should ask security agencies to harass and arrest his opponents.

“We thought this was what the military and   political cowards did.

“On this note, we also hope that the relevant authorities will call him to order so that they would not be accused of supporting impunity.”

The lawmaker also appealed to the Presidency and security agencies not to participate in any illegality in order to avoid crisis.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party had dismissed rumours that the whereabouts of its certificate of registration were  unknown.

Rather, it said the certificate  was  in safe hands and had not been declared missing by any organ of the party.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, who stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday, said those peddling the  rumours  had   no  knowledge of the  workings of the party.

He said, “Our certificate is not missing. It is in safe hands. We have not declared it missing. We have seen it and anyone saying that it is missing does not know the workings of our party.”

Metuh subsequently asked members of the party to disregard the rumours.

There   had been   speculations  on Tuesday  among some senior members of the  party  about the whereabouts of the certificate

Some  of them had  said that  the  document was with a former leader  who had yet     to return it to the Wadata Plaza  national secretariat  of the party in Abuja.

The   said  certificate was alleged to have been with the said officer when a former National Chairman of the party, Chief Audu Ogbe,  was asked to resign.