The acrimony between the National Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the Chairman of the Special National Convention Committee, Professor Jerry Gana came out to the open yesterday when Gana and Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu were locked out of Tukur’s residence.
The two men had gone to the residence of Tukur, located at Wuse 2 around 9.30am, to brief him on the activities of the committee concerning the convention, which date has not been fixed, but Tukur refused to grant them audience.
When the two men arrived, an aide of Tukur had informed them that the national chairman had travelled outside the Federal Capital Territory.
Investigations further revealed that both Gana and Ekweremadu refused to go as they were said to have noticed the presence of security aides of Tukur.
While Gana decided to sit with the security aides under a shade in front of Tukur’s residence, Ekweremadu, who is also the secretary of the committee, sat in his official car.
The security men at the gate refused to open the gate for the two men.
After waiting for about 20 minutes and the gate was still locked against them, they left around 10.05am, with a message with one of the security men at the entrance, asking him to inform the chairman of their visit.
Investigations however showed that as soon as they left, members of the Interim National Working Committee of the party started arriving and were allowed inside.
They were said to have held a meeting with Tukur and left his residence after their deliberation, which lasted for one hour.
They left the expansive yard around 11.11am.
Tukur also had a meeting with the party’s new Director of Mobilisation and Organisarion, Mr. Uche Igwe.
Tukur later left the residence for the airport on his way to Yola, Adamawa State, around 12pm.
A member of the NWC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said both Tukur and all the NWC members were not happy with the decision of Gana to relocate the workings of the committee to a private residence.
“This was why they came. They thought that they could just bypass us and do everything without us,” the source added.
Tukur in his reaction, said he was not at home when the two men came to his residence.
Apart from this, he said there was a standing instruction with his security men not to allow anyone into his compound whenever he was not around.
It will be recalled that since the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party, at its last meeting last month, approved the Committee to conduct elections into the posts vacated by some members of the National Working Committee, NWC, who resigned, Tukur and the committee had been at loggerheads.
The problem, it was gathered, first came up when Tukur complained of non-inclusion of members of NWC as sub-committee members, which then led to the inclusion of six of NWC members.
The National Chairman and members of the interim NWC, a source told this correspondent, were not happy with the Gana’s committee on the grounds that the committee was operating as a parallel NWC, whereas the committee was expected to take directives from the Tukur-led NWC.