•Accuses Jonathan of fascism
•Ex-Kebbi Gov, Aliero, joins faction
By Rotimi Akinwumi / Abuja
The breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Abubakar Kawu Baraje has alleged that the Presidency was persecuting its members.
National Publicity Secretary of the faction, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, said in a statement in Abuja on Sunday that the Presidency has been using state apparatus to harass members of the New PDP with a view to cowing them and bringing them back under the leadership of National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur.
The Presidency, Eze said, has been attacking the financial base of members of the New PDP, alleging that an all out economic war is being waged against them.
He also accused the government of using the police to harass and intimidate members of the group, which, he insists, runs contrary to their fundamental human rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.
"The past few weeks in particular have witnessed the implementation of a well coordinated and systematic plot to traumatise, annihilate and cripple us economically and politically in flagrant disregard of Chapter IV Section 33 to 45 of the Nigerian Constitution that guarantees our fundamental human rights as Nigerians.
"A few examples of the excesses of these agents of confusion and enemies of democracy would suffice:
"Contrary to the provisions of Chapter IV Sections 42, 43 and 44 of the Constitution which guarantee our right as Nigerians to acquire and own property in any part of the country, our national secretariat and most of our state secretariats have been sealed off by the police on the orders of those in power.
"This is despite the fact that we still have a court case against Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and his National Working Committee (NWC).
"Two weeks ago, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in its over zealousness to please President (Goodluck) Jonathan marked our sealed national secretariat for demolition on the laughable excuse that it was originally approved as a residential building.
"Yet this property was being used as the national secretariat of another political party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), before New PDP acquired it – and the same FCTA kept mute!"
Eze said at that time, the FCTA failed to realise that the activities being carried on the property violated land use "but it now wants to demolish the building in a hurry simply because the authorities perceive the new owner (New PDP) to be anti-government!
"What is more, the Adamawa State Lodge, also in Abuja, which we were using as temporary national secretariat, has also been sealed off on the flimsy excuse that the area is not for commercial activities!"
He claimed the crackdown by the Federal Government has been extended to individual leaders of the New PDP.
"The legally acquired Abuja property of His Excellency, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, the Governor of Kano State, has been revoked by the tyrannical Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed.
"The same treatment has been meted to Senator Aisha Al-Hassan from Taraba State, whose event centre, A-Park Gardens, which has been in operation all these years, has suddenly been revoked by the FCTA and slated to be demolished any time from now.
"Information available to us indicates that property in Abuja owned by other New PDP leaders may suffer the same fate.
"Today, the security details attached to Senators Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Danjuma Goje, former Governors of Kwara and Gombe states respectively, have been withdrawn; so, too, the security details attached to our National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje.
"Of course, Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State was the first victim and now operates without an ADC and a CSO in order to pave way for his kidnapping or assassination if peaceful ways of removing him from office fail.
"The police orderlies of the Rivers State SSG and those of Amaechi's Chief of Staff have also been similarly withdrawn without any cogent reasons."
The party also spoke of the use of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to hound its members.
"His Excellency Timipre Sylva, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, and Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki are two foremost examples.
"We understand that the worst is yet to come as this unserious organ masquerading as an anti-graft agency would soon be unleashed on all our key members in both the Senate and House of Representatives in an operation code-named, 'Operation Coerce them Back to Tukur'.
"On its part, the Nigeria Police, which has woefully failed to find a solution to the menace of Boko Haram, kidnapping, assassination and other criminal acts ravaging the country, has been given a fresh mandate to frame up our members and term them criminals in order to keep them at bay.
"The experiment has already started in Bayelsa, the home state of President Jonathan, where 85 per cent of the citizens have indicated interest to work against his second term ambition due to the total neglect of the state and the entire Niger Delta region by the present administration."
The New PDP spoke of "a high powered investigation committee headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of Central Instigation Department" that has been set up to look into the "various crimes allegedly committed by one Richard Poekene Kpodo."
"But what is the crime of Chief Richard Kpodo? He has suddenly become a criminal by joining and becoming the state chairman of the Baraje-led faction of the PDP in Bayelsa.
"Curiously, his present hunters have conveniently forgotten that this was the same man who was in the forefront of the campaign team of President Jonathan in 2011."
"His State Secretary, Sidi D. Godwill, was the Zonal Youth Leader of PDP. These two, together with all other key members of the Baraje-led PDP, can no longer visit Bayelsa State just because of politics.”
The factional group said the crackdown took a new and frightening dimension on Saturday morning when the Publicity Secretary of the New PDP in Bayelsa State, Tonye Okio, was abducted by the state police command in a commando fashion in his Abuja residence.
"Few days ago, in a move to root out our people in Gombe State, one of the mainstay of our party based on the revolutionary regime of His Excellency, Senator Danjuma Goje, and his remarkable feats in areas of road construction, health, education, rural development and provision of portable water which made him the toast of the masses of Gombe and after the Baraje-led PDP has overrun both the government machinery and the aging Tukur's faction of PDP, our leader in the state, Mohammed Magaji Doho who was the Commissioner of Water Resources for eight years during the golden tenure of Senator Goje has been arrested.
"This bulldozer and a ruthless grassroots mobiliser together with 68 of our members were arrested by the police command in Gombe State for no cogent reasons," the party said.
The series of intimidating acts against the New PDP members, Eze added, are clear signals that the Presidency has become autocratic, ready to crush all opposing views irrespective of how genuine the complaints might be.
