THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Saturday, rejected the public hearing on restructuring proposed by the All Progressives Party (APC) describing it as a delay tactic and illegal.
The oppostion party vowed never to participate in the event billed to commence this week.
This came as the party kicked against the designation of IPOB as a terror organisation by the military.
Spokesperson for the party, Dayo Adeyeye, who made the party’s position known, said the military authorities lacked the power to label any group as a terror body.
Adeyeye spoke while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the party received in audience, a delegation of the Communist Party of China who paid it a working visit.
Adeyeye said APC lacked genuine commitment in the call for the restructuring of the country.
He said the PDP would have nothing to do with it, saying only the National Assembly that has such power and not a political party.
According to him, “It (public hearing) is a delay tactics meant to kill the demand for restructuring and we are not interested and will not participate in such hearing because the APC has no genuine interest in restructuring the country
“They betrayed their real intentions when the issue of restructuring came on the front burner and APC and it’s members were campaigning against it
“The APC national chairman and one of their governors came on a National Television to say that restructuring is not in their manifesto. So when did they now change their mind?
Adeyeye said only the Federal Government and the National Assembly could make such a pronouncement and not any agency or an organ of the government that could proscribe an organisation or group in line with the constitution.
According to him, I believe that the power to proscribe an organisation lies essentially with the National Assembly and the Federal government. It does not lie with the governors or the military.”
Adeyeye, however, lauded the efforts of the South-East governors in banning IPOB and instructing its leaders, particularly Nnamdi Kanu, to forward the group’s demands to the South-East Governors’ Forum and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Igbo socio-cultural organisation.
According to him, “the governors are the chief security officers of the various states and the primary responsibility of government is to secure lives and property of its citizens
“But for the military, I think they overreached themselves by declaring IPOB a terrorist organisation. It is not in their powers to do so but that of the National Assembly and the relevant federal agencies which after careful evaluation can say an organisation can be classified as a terrorist organisation or not,” he said.
Adeyeye also decried the dearth of leadership among Ndigbo, noting that the development was largely to blame for the emergence of the now outlawed IPOB.
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