Jonathan Can’t Remove Me ––Bamanga Tukur Dares President

PDP is going down and the signs are manifesting everyday. In a daring outburst, the embattled chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, on Monday declared that only a national convention of the ruling party can in any guise remove him from the office of National Chairman of PDP. Alhaji Tukur, who spoke with newsmen on his travails, dismissed the report that he had been asked to resign by the president. He insisted that no one can ask him to leave office as he is not ready to go.

In his words: "I am an elected national chairman. I have my certificate of return. I cannot resign. The convention brought me, so it has to take the convention that brought me for me to resign. So, not even the president can ask me to resign."Tukur’s lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, had written the president, warning against any action aimed at removing the national chairman from office. This is even as the party’s National Working Committee held two separate meetings, giving indications of a deepened crisis in the party. Tukur has been fighting to retain his job as most members of the NWC ostensibly backed by some governors and power brokers in the party technically passed a vote of no confidence on his leadership at a meeting convened by Jonathan last Thursday. PDP NWC holds two separate meetings In the meantime, Tukur's woes deepened Monday as members of his National Working Committee refused to attend an emergency meeting summoned at his instance. Members of the NWC who refused to attend Tukur’s meeting later converged at the secretariat under the leadership of deputy national secretary Uche Secondus. While Tukur’s meeting was honoured by only two of the 12-member, the one presided over by Secondus was attended by no fewer than seven of the NWC members. This is the first clear indication that Jonathan wants Tukur out of office at all cost.