Tukur replies Nyako: 'You are free to leave PDP'

Barely a day after Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, said that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) needed urgent bail out to save it from death, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, has asked him to leave the party, if he desires to do so.

Tukur said unequivocally that no way the party could die, whether he (Nyako) left or not.

Tukur and Nyako have been involved is a festering political disagreements in their native Adamawa State.

Tukur, who was responding to statements credited to the governor and the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Kobies Aris, that he (Tukur) was working towards killing the party and should be removed said it was wrong for them to have said the party would die.

His reponse to Nyako's words was contained in a  statement by his Media Assistant, Mr. Oliver Okpala, in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said, 'The question of his threatening to move out of the party is his constitutional right and nobody can challenge his right to move out of the party. However, as long as he remains in the PDP, he must align himself with the party discipline; which is the bedrock of enthroning internal democracy in the party.

'His utterances and wishes for the death of the PDP, clearly in the eyes of the party and the public, portray him as a believer in a sect without faith.'

He said it was unfortunate that in Nigeria, unlike in other advanced countries, orientation courses, seminars or retreats were not being organised for those elected into the office of governor to help reform and remodel them into strict adherence to being politically and socially civil in terms of their public utterances, mode of dressing, social comportment and the norms of the society.

He said this lacuna in the political structure had allowed those elected as governors to behave and talk in ways he described as desecrating to the sanctity of the offices of governors in states, where such had been elected.

Okpala, therefore, called on the National Assembly to make a law that would compel governors to attend such courses before assuming office.

Stressing that the 'PDP cannot die, as being predicted by Governor Nyako and his government,' Okpala said by predicting the death of a political structure that brought him to the limelight and recognition as a governor, Nyako had shown that 'he is not a true party man.'

He added, 'No responsible party man or head of a family will wish the death or eclipse for his own family.'

He said there was no way Tukur, as a father, would work towards the death of a political structure he helped to establish, adding that as the national chairman of the PDP, Tukur had brought peace and mutual understanding to prevail among those he described as 'true members and faithful of the PDP family.'

Okpala said it was no longer a hidden truth that Nyako and his followers in Adamawa State had been romancing the opposition, as indicated by his public utterances.

Observers believed that the exchange of words between the two elders of the party might make the job of the 30-man reconciliation committee, scheduled to be inaugurated in Abuja on Thursday (today), tedious