Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
Twenty-four hours after the People's Democratic Party (PDP) wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) asking for the disqualification of Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the April presidential elections, President Olusegun Obasanjo has dispatched the National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Ahmadu Ali to the House of Representatives to get the support of the lawmakers in the war against the vice president.
Twenty-four hours after the People's Democratic Party (PDP) wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) asking for the disqualification of Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the April presidential elections, President Olusegun Obasanjo has dispatched the National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Ahmadu Ali to the House of Representatives to get the support of the lawmakers in the war against the vice president.
The PDP national chairman, who wore a radiant look as he majestically walked into a closed-door meeting with the PDP House caucus on Wednesday, according to sources, tried to persuade the lawmakers not only to discard the plot to commence impeachment process against Obasanjo but also to support the effort to reposition the party.
It was gathered that one of such repositioning effort, Ali told the lawmakers, was the suspension of Atiku, Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State and several others who defected from the party after being denied registration as members of the PDP.
To appease the lawmakers, who are aggrieved over denial of tickets for this year's elections, Ali was said to have exonerated the national secretariat of the party from their misfortune. He was said to have promised to look into seven complaints out of the petitions before him.
One of the lawmakers said: "This is what the national chairman came to do, but we are aware of the motives. I can assure you that it was to feel the pulse of the House and I can say boldly that it will never work,"
Hon Francis Amadiegwu, on his part, confirmed that the ‘Impeach Atiku Project' was alive, adding that any attempt to bring the matter to the House would only accelerate the moves to get the president out of office.
"Quote me, the impeachment project is very much alive. The national chairman had only come to feel our pulse. Nobody can ask us to impeach Atiku. Instead, we will impeach both of them. Believe me, the impeachment project is on in a different tempo," Amadiegwu said.
He said that he was happy that leadership of the House was able to tell the PDP national chairman the home truth, which he said was belated because the party had lost many members to the other party after the humiliation they suffered at the party's primaries.
Daily Sun gathered that chairman of the PDP House caucus and Speaker, Aminu Bello Masari and House Leader, Abdul Ningi, who spoke the minds of the lawmakers, told Ali how members were made prey to state governors and state party chairmen in the last primaries.
They handed to Ali names of 40 lawmakers who were denied return tickets after they had given everything they had for the party, in terms of loyalty and financial support, particularly when the party's leadership and elders were on the verge of being clobbered by the opposition.
"These people gave unflinching support to the party. They were against the plot to embarrass the president when impeachment moves were hot. They were there to vote for the position of the party on all issues, but what was their reward? Humiliation at the polls," the lawmakers told the national chairman.
The example of Alhaji Masari, the Deputy Speaker, Austin Opara, the Chief Whip, Bawa Bwari, who lost the party's governorship primaries in their respective states, were mentioned as classical evidence of how the party stabbed the House in the back.
The lawmakers also blamed the national secretariat of the PDP for looking the other way when governors wooed state executives to undermine the home base of National Assembly members, adding that while the robust relationship that existed between the Executive and the Legislature at state levels were rewarded, it was a different ball game at the federal level.