Tukur
· Says impeachment threat not new
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has opened up on the sons of two of the party’s bigwigs currently undergoing trial for their alleged involvement in the fuel subsidy scandal.
Mahmud, son of the present national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Mamman Nasir, son of a former national chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali are among the 20 suspects currently standing trial for allegedly looting N13 billion from the Petroleum Support Fund.
At a press briefing on Thursday in Abuja, Deputy National chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam Jaja declared that the involvement of Mahmud and Mamman Nasir in the scandal is not the business of the PDP and that the party would leave them to bear their cross.
Jaja pleaded that members of the public should stop linking Tukur and Ali, fathers of the two suspects to the scandal, stressing that the suspects are full grown adults that must be accountable for their actions.
He stated: “Mamman Nasir and Mahmud are individuals and should be allowed to bear their cross. There are Governors elected on the platform of the PDP who are facing prosecution as a result of their actions or inactions while in office. So it is not a party thing.
“The PDP did not send anybody to go and misbehave. Our chairman’s son is up to age. Assuming he is to go to jail, they will not come and jail the national chairman because he did not send him.
“Mahmud is a man of age and he has his household, he has his family. Everybody should be left to account for his own position. So the party cannot just get up and start breathing down on them and begin to condemn them. They will be given equal opportunity to defend themselves in competent court of law”
Jaja however added that the suspects in the ongoing trial remain innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law, saying that it is only when they are found guilty that the party would come up with a position on the issue.
“But for now, it would be absolutely premature and prejudicial for the party to begin to condemn them”, the party chief emphasised.
Also speaking on the threat by the House of Representatives to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan over non implementation of the 2012national budget, Jaja said impeachment threats are not new in democracies the world over.
According to him, it is not the first time that any President would be threatened with impeachment in Nigeria, and even in the United States.
He acknowledged the fact that the Rep members may have their grievances, even as he admitted that President Jonathan also may have made errors that could warrant the threat.
Jaja however stated that although the PDP controls a majority in the House of Representatives, the party would not make any attempt to impose any position on the legislators regarding the impeachment threat.
The PDP, he said, would explore every available diplomatic means in resolving the crisis, adding that the party has set up machineries to look into the grievances of the legislature and the position of the President.
This, he said, is with the view to resolving the issue in the best interest of democracy and the Nigerian people. He added that as far as the party is concerned, there is no threat whatsoever.
“It is not the first time any President would be threatened with impeachment; not only in this country. In America, several Presidents had been threatened with impeachment in the past and what the PDP is doing is to take up the process.
“It is not a fluke that they are not making any sense. It is not also a fluke that the President is making errors that require impeachment. At times we over bloat these things. The party has set up machineries to look into all the grievances of the members of the National Assembly and what is the position of the President.
“Many of the members are of the PDP but they have their grievances. So we will not lord it over them simply because we have a majority among the members. This matter will be tackled diplomatically so wherever anybody has gone wrong, it will be sorted out and eventually this storm will definitely die down
“There must be an avenue for the two parties to meet and this thing will be resolved in the interest of democracy in this country. So there is no threat actually. It is the usual thing that happens in any democratic process”, Jaja submitted.
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