A factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abubakar Baraje, has requested all members of the party worldwide to embark on seven days of fasting and prayers commencing from Monday, September 16 as one of the ways of resolving the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Mr. Baraje said his faction decided to commit the present logjam in educational sector to God because it has proven too intractable for the Federal Government to solve.

He said his party was deeply concerned by the plight of students and parents due to the continued closure of public universities following the strike by ASUU to protest the Federal Government’s failure to implement the agreement it signed with the Union in 2009.

“Muslims all over the nation and abroad who are PDP members should close their fast by this Friday, 20th of September, 2013, at their places of worship while the Christians should end theirs on Sunday, 22nd September, 2013 at their places of worship,”. Mr. Baraje said in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

The statement, which was signed by the spokesperson of the faction, Chukwuemeke Eze, said it had become imperative to seek the face of God over the lingering industrial action considering that “all efforts to resolve this unwarranted strike have failed woefully and considering the socio-economic damage this strike has caused both parents and our children,” Mr. Eze said.

He said he was confident that their resolve to go to God would succeed as the importance of fasting and prayers could not ” be overemphasized”.

Ashamed of the government

Mr. Eze said members of the faction are shocked that the government inflicting this monumental hardship on Nigerians is a PDP Government popularly elected by majority of Nigerians and run by a president who was once a university lecturer.

He asked for forgiveness from Nigerians on behalf of the federal government and assured that the party would find a way out of the “shameful situation”.

Sets up four-man committee

Mr. Eze also said the factional chairman, had set up a four-man committee, under the leadership of Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, to advise the party on the best way to get the Federal Government’s Negotiating Committee and the leadership of ASUU to reach an agreement on the issues at stake and therefore end the three-month-old strike.

Other members of the committee are Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Chinwo Ike, President of the University of Port Harcourt Alumni, and Timi Frank, the faction’s National Youth Leader.

Mr. Eze said the setting up of the committee became urgent as reports reaching the faction indicated that many of students “have out of frustration and boredom turned to prostitution, armed robbery and other vices due to the prolonged industrial action”.

Police should unseal our secretariats

Mr. Eze asked the detachment of police officers currently stationed at the faction’s secretariat to vacate the property following Friday’s decision by
a Federal High Court in Abuja which ruled that the Baraje faction of the PDP should be allowed to operate without any further harassment or inhibition.

Justice E.S. Chukwu had in his ruling held that there was no evidence before the court to show any misconduct on the part of Baraje’s faction as claimed by the Tukur-led faction, which requested it to stop the Baraje-led PDP from operating.

“We, therefore, wish to appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan to save the Police from the plot to ridicule it by using it to perpetrate illegality such as sealing the lawfully-acquired National Secretariat of PDP and our Secretariats in states like Rivers, Bayelsa, Kaduna and Kwara,” Mr. Eze said.

“The powers that be should as a matter of urgency stop projecting and portraying the Police as a tool of injustice and attack on the perceived political opponents of Mr. President” Eze. Said.

He said the faction would continue to use the Judiciary to prove to Mr. Tukur’s faction that the days of running the affairs of the PDP with impunity and high-handedness were over.

He said the time had come for Mr. Tukur to correctly read the handwriting on the wall and honourably throw in the towel along with other members of his National Working Committee.