Jonathan Angry At Bamanga Tukur; As Gov Akpabio Is Exposed

After several calls for his sack from stakeholders in the PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan has turned against the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as the crisis rocking the ruling party is assuming frightening dimension, leading to more members dumping PDP for APPC.

Governor Godswill Akpabio's secret plans have also been exposed:

“Unknown to many, while Akpabio pretends to be working for the President, he has his eyes on the ticket either as the Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate in case the heat becomes too much for President Jonathan and he chooses not to run. So, the strategy is to first stoke the fire on the President’s key supporters and at the same time pretend to be fighting for him. 

“Towards this end, he has mobilised these people to destabilise the NWC with a view to seeing to Tukur’s exit. Of late, he has been going round, especially to the North, with a view to mobilising support for his concealed agenda.”

Following the series of revelations against Tukur, Jonathan openly condemned the PDP chairman’s leadership style at a stormy meeting with Tukur and other members of the National Working Committee at the Aso Rock presidential villa in Abuja on Thursday night.

At the meeting held under what could best be described as a tensed atmosphere, the President was said to have expressed his displeasure over the way the PDP chairman was running the party.

Specifically, the President was said to have pointedly accused Tukur of not working well with some organs of the party like the members of the National Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, governors and state party chairmen across the states.

The meeting, which was not allowed to be covered by State House correspondents, it was further learnt, was aimed at resolving the crisis in the party ahead of its National Executive Committee meeting, which is billed to hold in Abuja next Thursday.

It was gathered that the President summoned the meeting in order to know how to handle those calling for the sacking of Tukur ahead of the National Executive Committee meeting of the party.

Sources told Punch that some NWC members alleged to be acting the script of Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, one of Jonathan’s loyalists, spoke out against Tukur openly at the meeting.

Those who spoke against Tukur are:

The National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Chief Olisa Metuh; the National Woman Leader, Chief Kema Chikwe, and the National Financial Secretary, Elder Bolaji Akpan Anani.

Anani, a loyalist of Governor Akpabio, was alleged to be the arrowhead of those within the PDP NWC that are opposed to Tukur’s continued leadership of the party.

A member of the NWC, who was at the meeting told Punch that they told Jonathan that they were not carried along and were not aware of the dissolution of state executive of the party in Kwara and Sokoto.

And Tukur Fired Back
Tukur was said to have fired back and accused some of the NWC members of being anti-Jonathan, alleging a gang up of some of the members of the NWC against him.

Tukur, it was also gathered, said he had wanted to work with a team but allegedly regretted that he was only able to have a group to work with among the NWC members.

This was said to have drawn the anger of the NWC members as they were said to have asked if only Tukur was capable of singlehandedly returning the President to office in 2015.

The Governor Akpabio connection

Political analysts believe that Akpabio’s move against Tukur might have been informed by the perceived body language of the President against Tukur in his desperate bid to please party members in order to get the party ticket to run in 2015.

A credible source say Jonathan dismissed the meeting without taking a stand, saying he will get back to them. In what is believed to be a tough choice, the source told MrTolulope.Com that Jonathan is considering not to contest in 2015 but with the way things are going he may decide to contest in other to "stop some people".