New PDP- Jonathan Sacked Ministers Loyal to Us
They are opposition spies -presidency source
The battle between the Presidency and New PDP took another turn today with the factional PDP alleging that President Jonathan sacked nine ministers because they are sympathetic to their cause. This was contained in a press release received via e-mail on Friday Morning morning from the National Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party, New PDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze. According to Eze 'No matter the flimsy excuses being given by the Federal Government over the sack of nine of our candidates from the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the truth of the matter is that these innocent Ministers were sacked because they were either nominated by us or sympathetic to our cause.''
Going further, the New PDP scribe stated that ''We are aware that these Ministers had been under surveillance and denied the necessary tools to work with - in short; they were programmed to fail immediately they were indentified with us. Sadly, these innocent Ministers have been sacked while the most corrupt Ministers whose atrocious activities are well known to Nigerians are retained.'' Lamenting exclusively the removal of Mama Pepple, the New PDP spokesman explained that. '' The most pitiable case of these sacked Ministers is that of our mother, the Minister of Housing, Ms Amal Pepple, whose crime was approaching Mr. President to plead with him, even kneeling down to beg him to forgive Gov. Amaechi for whatever sins he is assumed to have committed against him.''
The New PDP went philosophical by assuring the victimized ministers that their ordeal is temporal stating that'' We wish to assure these victimised Ministers that their travails are temporary. They have nothing to be ashamed of; their fate is in the hands of God and their future is very bright. Therefore, rather than being sad, they should count themselves lucky for being part of the struggle to salvage our party and country from the hands of opportunists who are using a political party which they do not know how it was formed to torment and haunt the founders of the party and their supporters.''
The New PDP, while condemning the high handedness in PDP described the situation as worse that Abacha days. According to them 'Against the spirit of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that clearly stipulates freedom of association for Nigerians - even the freedom of factionalisation of a political party as stated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), our people are being hounded in various states of the Federation. In flagrant and outright breach of the Constitution and abuse of the rule of law, today our National Secretariat remains sealed by the Police. To add insult to our injury, our Rivers State Secretariat just opened for business has also been sealed by the Police, who claim to be acting on orders from above. What is more, the Police also last night barred Gov. Amaechi and his guests (about 120 mainly former Speakers in the country) from entering the Governor's Residence through the private gate of the state Government House, Port Harcourt. And we still claim that we are in a democratic society! Surely, even the days of Abacha were not like this!''
The New PDP stated further that ' Indeed, General Sani Abacha must be lamenting in his grave that Nigerians wrongly abused him considering the high degree of impunities being encouraged in a democratic set up, with the Police being used as a tool to haunt political opponents.'
Giving reasons why some officers were suspended the New PDP stated that 'They went ahead to illegally suspend a sitting Governor (Rt. Hon. Amaechi) against the spirit of the PDP Constitution, soon following it with the suspension of Gov. Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State for not picking the calls of the tyrannical National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. As if this was not enough, they went ahead to suspend Senator Andy Uba for winning the Anambra State PDP Governorship Primaries just because they preferred another aspirant. And then from nowhere they suspended PDP's former National Vice Chairman, Dr. Sam Jaja''
Meanwhile sources within the presidency and the PDP have confirmed that some of the sacked ministers are perceived to be loyal to the opposition governors. According to a source who pleaded anonymity, the sacked ministers failed to stand fully with the President in times of trouble and as such deserve to be sacked. The source said that they will be replaced by politicians who will protect the interest of the incumbent in their various states as Wike is doing in River State and asked the sacked ministers to show gratefulness to the president for giving them opportunity to serve instead of complaining. According to the source, while Jonathan is ready for reconciliation, he will however not allow spies and fifth columnists in his camp.
Obinna Akukwe
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