Former Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, has for the first time, given the reason why five of the party’s governors walked out on him and President Goodluck Jonathan at the special national convention of the party in August, 2013.
Tukur, in an interveiw, rebuffed claims that he stopped Governor Murtala Nyako from the convention ground.
Rather, he claimed that Nyako chose to stay away after he was told that he could not come into the convention with his factional chairman of the party. According to him the five other governors decided to walk out in solidarity with Nyako because most of the governors themselves did not believe in the principle of internal democracy which he championed as national chairman. He accused the governors of seeking to push erstwhile national chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Tony Anenih, to undermine him as national chairman of the party.
Tukur, in the interview, also affirmed that the defeat of Dr. Jonathan in the March 28 presidential election was a result of sabotage worked out by some persons around the former president.
Tukur, who was compelled to resign as national chairman of the party in January 2014, also defended his stewardship of the party and dismissed assertions that the powerful politicians he brought in as aides helped to fracture his relationship with other members of the National Working Committee, NWC.
In a stout defence of his role as national chairman, Tukur took full responsibility for the action of his aides and said that he was not at any time undermined by the aides he appointed.
