By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—STRONG  indications have emerged that the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  Alhaji  Bamanga Tukur, and state governors elected on the PDP platform are locked in a battle of wits following their grievances over some of the decisions of the National Working Committee, NWC.

The governors as gathered, yesterday, are particularly not comfortable with the dissolution of the Adamawa State Executive Committee with fear that if serious action was not taken by them against the Bamanga Tukur-led NWC, there might be a repeat of that in their respective states where the governors will no longer have  control over  party members and delegates.

It would be recalled that the national leadership of the party recently dissolved the  Adamawa State chapter  and replaced with a caretaker committee appointed by the national leadership.

The  governors, as gathered,  are demanding a reversal of the dissolution or face a major fight from them, just as plans were on to recruit members from their states at the National Assembly.

Rivalry between PDP govs, Tukur

The rivalry between the PDP governors and their national chairman started three weeks ago when the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh  announced the sack of the Adamawa State executive committee.

The sacked  state committee was loyal  to the state governor, Murtala Nyako.

Following the dissolution,  the  NWC set up a caretaker committee headed by Ambassador Umar Damagun, from Yobe State, to manage the affairs of the party in the state till a new executive is elected.

Not comfortable with what happened,  Nyako immediately  rushed to the NWC where he  apologised  for the action of the Adamawa State chapter.

When confronted by journalists after the parley with the  NWC members, the Adamawa State governor said: “There is nothing wrong in begging. It is a very busy time for us in Adamawa. We had election this year, we have the menace of Boko Haram, we had flooding, we are very busy.

“Sometimes when you are busy, the way we are, omission is inevitable. So, whatever omission, shortcoming we have observed about our conduct, we extend our regret.”

But that apology did not douse the brewing tension as the party in the state went to court to challenge the decision of NWC. The court in an interim injunction ruled for a return to status quo and restrained the NWC from taking further action on the matter pending the determination of the substantive issue.

Worried by the development,  the PDP governors, led by chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Governor of Rivers State,  Mr. Chibuike Amaechi had to join the fight, just as  the Jigawa State governor, Sule  Lamido was said to have met  with Tukur to impress on him of the need to reverse the sack of the Adamawa PDP executive. However, that effort did not yield fruit.

After Lamido came,  Amaechi met with Tukur last Tuesday in Abuja for  hours on the same issue of the Adamawa State chapter.

He, too, failed to convince the PDP national chairman on the reversal of the dismissal of the executive. Following this, the PDP governors were said to have held an emergency meeting in the early hours of Thursday, after the NGF meeting that started Wednesday night.

It was gathered that at  the meeting, Amaechi was said to have briefed his colleagues on his efforts to ensure the reversal of the sack of the Adamawa executive.

The NGF chairman, after the meeting with the PDP national chairman, sent a delegation led by the Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda, to meet with Tukur to convince him of the need to rescind the sack,  but  Tukur was said to have refused.

According to a source at PDP,  “The National Chairman is insisting that before the decision is reversed that the court case instituted against the NWC must be withdrawn, as it was a question of indiscipline for the sacked executive to take the executive committee to court.”

The source noted  that Nyako was also insisting that the NWC withdraw the dissolution first, stressing that he can no longer trust the actions of the NWC in the matter.

It was also  gathered that some members of the NWC were also putting pressure on Tukur to ensure a withdrawal of the dissolution of the Adamawa State executive.

At the meeting of the NWC Thursday on the matter, it was also  gathered that the PDP National Organising Secretary, Mustapha Abubakar was virtually on his knees begging the national chairman of the need to reverse  the sack of the Adamawa party executive.

But Tukur insisted that the court case instituted by the sacked executive must be withdrawn as a first condition, just as it was also  gathered that the PDP governors were at the weekend pressing for an emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) to resolve the matter.

Metuh who  disclosed that there will be  a National Executive Committee,  NEC meeting soon, but did not say anything about the agenda, said,  “We will have a NEC meeting this month.