Following the raid on an uncompleted building believed to be a hideout of Boko Haram members near the legislative quarters at Apo, Abuja, last Friday by the Department of State Service, DSS, which claimed 10 lives, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) announced, yesterday, that 100,435 illegal, uncompleted buildings have been marked for demolition.

The end seems not in sight to the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the aggrieved seven governors operating on the platform of the new PDP (nPDP) are insisting that President Goodluck Jonathan must meet their demands presented at previous meetings they held with him (president).

THE Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, which has in its fold, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven aggrieved governors, yesterday, asked President Goodluck Jonathan to be a statesman, jettison the idea of re-contesting in 2015 and save Nigeria from what it termed needless crisis.

The shooting by security operatives at an uncompleted building behind Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja last Friday which claimed eight lives took a new turn yesterday as Garki Modern Market Traders Association vowed to drag the security service to court claiming those who were killed were its members and were innocent.

The death toll from last week’s attack in Borno State that saw insurgents dressed as soldiers, set up checkpoints and gun down travellers on a highway, has risen to, at least, 142.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is accusing President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides of aborting his meeting with the President to mend the crack in their Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Atiku, responding to a Sunday Vanguard questionnaire through his media adviser, Garba Shehu, alleged that a meeting called by Jonathan to discuss the issues with the former Vice President was sabotaged by the President’s staff who seemed not to be interested in solving the crisis in the party.

The crises in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the resulting spill over into the National Assembly have led to a sharp division among loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan over how to contain the political insurrection.

President Goodluck Jonathan and his Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party may be heading for further isolation, as another five incumbent governors of the party may soon dump them for the Abubakar Baraje faction, otherwise known as New PDP (nPDP).

STRONG indications emerged, yesterday, that an end to the lingering political quagmire rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is not in sight as the Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led faction accused the party National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur of not being serious with peace moves. This came just asthe nPDP said that it has not entered into any deal with President Goodluck Jonathan.

THE crisis ravaging the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, surfaced in the House of Representatives, yesterday, as members of the old PDP disrupted a scheduled meeting between the leadership of the House and the Alhaji Kawu Baraje-led new PDP (nPDP) and the G-7 governors.

A CLEARER picture of what the feuding camps of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, discussed at their Sunday’s make-or-mar meeting in Abuja emerged yesterday. To resolve the raging inferno, both camps, Vanguard gathered, identified at least eight thorny issues that must be amicably resolved. Some of the issues were ironed out through a joint resolution, a few were partially resolved and the very contentious ones that inflamed passions and on which the meeting couldn’t reach an agreement were farmed out to a committee to be raised by the party to try and resolve them ahead of the October 7 rescheduled meeting.

As the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the aggrieved G-7 governors and other leaders of the Abubakar Kawu Baraje faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, got underway last night to resolve the crisis in the party, there were indications that the nPDP may have adjusted its earlier demand that President Goodluck Jonathan should not seek a second term in office. This came as the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has appealed to leaders of the new PDP to embrace dialogue saying the problem can be resolved in a family way.

If all goes as planned at today’s meeting, President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to create a soft landing for the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, septuagenarian Bamanga Tukur, pursuant to working out a tidy strategy for his removal from office, Sunday Vanguard can authoritatively reveal.

The Abubakar Kawu Baraje led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP yesterday described the sack of nine Ministers by President Goodluck Jonathan as that targeted at the ‘rebel’ governors and also designed to victimise those perceived to be supporting them, just as it warned that anarchy looms in the country if leaders of thought failed to intervene.

POLICEMEN, last night, barred Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State and his guests mainly former speakers in the country from accessing the governor’s residence through the private gate of the state Government House, Port Harcourt.