A factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, Abubakar Baraje, has requested all members of
the party worldwide to embark on seven days of fasting
and prayers commencing from Monday, September 16
as one of the ways of resolving the ongoing strike by
the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Mr. Baraje said his faction decided to commit the
present logjam in educational sector to God because it
has proven too intractable for the Federal Government
to solve.
He said his party was deeply concerned by the plight of
students and parents due to the continued closure of
public universities following the strike by ASUU to
protest the Federal Government’s failure to implement
the agreement it signed with the Union in 2009.
“Muslims all over the nation and abroad who are PDP
members should close their fast by this Friday, 20th of
September, 2013, at their places of worship while the
Christians should end theirs on Sunday, 22nd
September, 2013 at their places of worship,”. Mr. Baraje
said in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
The statement, which was signed by the spokesperson
of the faction, Chukwuemeke Eze, said it had become
imperative to seek the face of God over the lingering
industrial action considering that “all efforts to resolve
this unwarranted strike have failed woefully and
considering the socio-economic damage this strike has
caused both parents and our children,” Mr. Eze said.
He said he was confident that their resolve to go to God
would succeed as the importance of fasting and prayers
could not ” be overemphasized”.
Ashamed of the government
Mr. Eze said members of the faction are shocked that
the government inflicting this monumental hardship on
Nigerians is a PDP Government popularly elected by
majority of Nigerians and run by a president who was
once a university lecturer.
He asked for forgiveness from Nigerians on behalf of
the federal government and assured that the party
would find a way out of the “shameful situation”.
Sets up four-man committee
Mr. Eze also said the factional chairman, had set up a
four-man committee, under the leadership of Governor
Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, to advise the party on
the best way to get the Federal Government’s
Negotiating Committee and the leadership of ASUU to
reach an agreement on the issues at stake and
therefore end the three-month-old strike.
Other members of the committee are Governor
Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Chinwo Ike, President
of the University of Port Harcourt Alumni, and Timi
Frank, the faction’s National Youth Leader.
Mr. Eze said the setting up of the committee became
urgent as reports reaching the faction indicated that
many of students “have out of frustration and boredom
turned to prostitution, armed robbery and other vices
due to the prolonged industrial action”.
Police should unseal our secretariats
Mr. Eze asked the detachment of police officers
currently stationed at the faction’s secretariat to vacate
the property following Friday’s decision by
a Federal High Court in Abuja which ruled that the
Baraje faction of the PDP should be allowed to operate
without any further harassment or inhibition.
Justice E.S. Chukwu had in his ruling held that there
was no evidence before the court to show any
misconduct on the part of Baraje’s faction as claimed by
the Tukur-led faction, which requested it to stop the
Baraje-led PDP from operating.
“We, therefore, wish to appeal to President Goodluck
Jonathan to save the Police from the plot to ridicule it
by using it to perpetrate illegality such as sealing the
lawfully-acquired National Secretariat of PDP and our
Secretariats in states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Kaduna and
Kwara,” Mr. Eze said.
“The powers that be should as a matter of urgency stop
projecting and portraying the Police as a tool of
injustice and attack on the perceived political
opponents of Mr. President” Eze. Said.
He said the faction would continue to use the Judiciary
to prove to Mr. Tukur’s faction that the days of running
the affairs of the PDP with impunity and high-
handedness were over.
He said the time had come for Mr. Tukur to correctly
read the handwriting on the wall and honourably throw
in the towel along with other members of his National
Working Committee.
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