Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has written to the Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Bamanga Tukur, stating his intension to withdraw from the party’s activities until the South-West zonal leader, Buruji Kashamu, is removed.
Obasanjo alleged that Kashamu is a wanted criminal and he would not allow such person to be his leader in the South-West, where he also comes from.
In the three-paragraph letter dated January 7, 2014, also copied to President Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo revealed that he’s withdrawing from the party’s activities because the PDP had been negating the principles of morality, decency and discipline in its decisions.
Obasanjo’s letter to Tukur reads:
“While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.
“(Buruji Kashamu has been so extolled in PDP in South-West geo-political zone which I personally find unsavoury. Politics played by any national political party must have morality, decency, discipline, principles and leadership examples as cardinal practices of the party. I have attached here recent documents that clearly indicate that your extolled PDP Zonal Leader in the South-West zone of Nigeria and an indigene of Ogun State is, to say the least, not a credit to the party as a member, let alone being a zonal leader.
“Since I stick in my practice of party politics to the hallowed and cherished principles enunciated above, I take this opportunity to let you know that while I continue to remain a card-carrying member of PDP, I cannot and I will not subscribe to a wanted habitual criminal being installed as my zonal leader in the party; a criminal for whom extradition has been requested by the US government. In the meantime, I will consider withdrawing my activity with PDP at local, state, zonal and national levels until the anomalous and shameful situation is corrected.”
