The Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Sam Jaja has described as mischievous a publication in the Punch newspaper alleging PDP conspiracy with the House of representative to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan.
The newspaper had alleged that the Deputy National Chairman while speaking to the press said ‘President Goodluck Jonathan had committed blunders that require his impeachment’.
Jaja while reacting to the story at his residence in Port Harcourt also rubbished reports by the same newspaper that some South-South leaders have made statements in the press condemning both his person and the alleged statement.
According to him, from NTA news on Thursday to other medium that covered the event, there was no place it was indicated that he said the President has committed an impeachable offence. He expressed surprise and disappointment that the Punch Newspaper was the only one involved in the mischief.
The second highest ranking officer in PDP hierarchy went further to explain thus, “the area the Punch newspaper is making all the hype about is my comment that the threat of the House of Representative to impeach President Jonathan is not a fluke, neither has the president made some errors that require impeachment” – how that translates to the Punch publication that the President is indicted by PDP for committing error is a surprise. Punch interpretation was totally not right; the paper chose to make a mould out of something that had no bearing with what was attainable.
Dr. Jaja further held that listening to the content to which the question at the briefing was answered, there was a follow up where he gave instances that in the United States their had also been series of threats of impeachment, and observed that there is hardly any democracy that runs smoothly without threats of impeachment. He also said once their is disagreement between the legislators and executives the weapon of the legislature becomes threat of impeachment.
He explained that the issue of conspiracy does not hold water; impeachment according to him has never been easy considering the reasonable and undeniable evidence you will present to show that the President has actually committed an impeachable offence.
The PDP Deputy National President noted that the issue of impeachment is normal, but however noted that the important thing is for the leadership of the party to look at the issues propounded by the Reps and also look at the President’s position with a view to arriving at a compromise that will help resolve the impasse.
“Perhaps I need to sound it loud and clear, that PDP is totally in support of the President and can never ever vilify the president for whatever reason – we are in total support of the President, and we will continue to give him all the requisite support needed to succeed” he said, stressing that the President is the leader of the party and the party cannot just come out and tell the public that he has committed an impeachable offence.
Drawing attention to the hype generated by the impeachment saga he said “the House of Representative has not even named any impeachable offence other than he has not implemented the budget; is that sufficient to impeach a president, he queried.
For those who reacted to the publication he said, “I thought some of those who are venting their rage on me as a result of the Punch Publication should have been more reasonable, knowing that the Punch newspaper is being mischievous. Why is it that other papers, radio and television stations in the briefing did not carry such alarming headlines”?.
Dr. Sam Sam Jaja who is a titled citizen of Opobo kingdom went further to define the word ‘fluke’. Fluke from the context it was used according to him means ‘don’t rejoice on emptiness’, which points to the fact that whatever allegation the House of Representatives had proffered against the President was baseless and should not be rejoiced over.
He observed that the mischief publication from Punch was a deliberate attempt to pitch the president against the party, or the party against the president, or rather against his person as an individual which he said was absolutely not right.
Basically in his words, there’s obviously nothing on the table to warrant the impeachment of the President, and that was why when the press came he told them it’s not a fluke and was not worth the entire headline. “I told them not to rejoice because there was nothing on ground”
On the claims that some south-south leaders are raging on the pages of newspaper over the alleged statement credited to him, Dr Jaja debunked the claim saying no south-south leader made any statement in that regard. The people presenting themselves on the pages of newspapers as South-South leaders according to him are not south-south leaders but some overzealous persons who decided to speak without verifying their facts. He noted that he has spoken to some of the south-south leaders who understand and are convinced he wouldn’t say a thing like that.
“The south-south leaders I know in such a situation would have called me in-house to enquire about the matter before going public. Perhaps the overzealousness of those claiming to be south-south leaders was an attempt to pitch brother against brother” he opined.
In his conclusion he said what Punch newspaper did was to make news out of nothing – prompting some persons to fall for it. “For anyone to say PDP is conspiring with the House of Representatives to impeach the president is the most derogatory statement any person can make. PDP and the President are one and he is the leader of the party – majority of the people in the House of Representatives are PDP members, there wouldn’t have been any conspiracy to impeach the president for whatever reason” he retorted.
