BOT Chairmanship: No plan to amend constitution to remove OBJ - Ahmadu Ali, Says OBJ'll be chairman till 2010

Idowu Samuel and Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja - 19.02.2008

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday dismissed members of the G-21 who have been pushing for an amendment of its constitution to pave the way for the removal of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustee, stating that the G-21 had failed in their bid.

The outgoing National Chairman of the party, Senator Ahmadu Ali, said this in Abuja when inaugurating the electoral panel for the PDP convention, headed by Mallam Adamu Ciroma. He stressed that the party was not contemplating amending its constitution.

Ali said the PDP had no proposal in its agenda for the convention on amendment of its constitution. He, however, admitted receiving a proposal to that effect from members of the G-21 led by the former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani. He explained that the proposal could only be considered in two years’ time when the PDP would hold its next national convention.

Obasanjo had at the weekend in Edo State boasted that no one could remove him as the BOT chairman, stressing that anyone wishing to do so would have to amend the constitution of the party.

According to Ali, “there is no proposal in the agenda of the convention for any constitutional amendment. Any proposal for amendment of the constitution must be received not less than 60 days before the date of a convention. I want to say categorically that none was received within the agenda of the 2008 national convention.

“However, the present proposed amendment will be tabled at subsequent convention of the party after it must have passed through due process,” Chief Ali said.

The chairman kicked off preparations for the national convention scheduled for March 8 with the inauguration of the Convention Planning Committee headed by Mallam Ciroma. He said that the ballot papers for voting at the convention had already been printed and kept at the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Corporation in Abuja.

Ali said the mode of election at the national convention and congresses of the party would be open secret in which delegates would collect the ballot papers printed in booklet form, cast their votes secretly and then drop the ballot paper openly in a ballot box that would be provided.

He said the voting at the convention would be conducted with a high measure of transparency, adding that the party would come out of the national convention to showcase its might, cohesion and unity.

Ali again announced that the ward congress as of the PDP would start on February 21, those of local government on February 25, state congresses, February 28, while the zonal congress would be held on March 4.

Ali said the PDP national convention would be handled essentially by the two committees headed by Alhaji Ciroma and Chief Bode George whom he said had had the privilege of conducting the past three national conventions of the PDP.