Deadlock, Confusion Greet APC, nPDP Merger As Kawu Baraje Faction Denies Signing MoU, Threatens To Return To PDP

Signs emerged last night that all may not be well with the much touted merger between the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Kawu Baraje led faction of the People Democratic Party popularly knows as nPDP with the denial by the nPDP that they did not merge with the APC.
It declared yesterday that “what happened on Tuesday was merely "a declaration of intent to merge”.
The New PDP also gave indication that they might still return to the PDP if the party structures were returned to the governors of Adamawa, Kano and Rivers.
The Baraje faction stated that if their demands were still met, they would stop the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, they wanted to sign with the APC on Tuesday.
Speaking on the Tuesday declaration by leaders of the New PDP and the APC, the publicity chief of the party, Chief Chukwemeka Eze, said the event at Kano Governor’s Lodge was misrepresented, clarifying that the parties had not signed any memorandum of understanding.
Eze said the parties in the alliance had just set up a committee to work on the conditions of the merger and that the report of the committee was to be submitted to the steering committee on Tuesday.
“It is only after we have signed the MoU that you can say we have merged. You guys should have asked us to list conditions of the merger. Can we merge without conditions?”
Eze explained that the chairman of the New PDP’s first phrase was that “We have agreed to work together but it was Chief Bisi Akande who insisted on the use of the word merger.
“I want to tell you that the matter is not concluded. We have to share positions. We have to agree on what will go to them and what will go to us. That is what the committee is still working on and nobody has signed the MoU.”
Asked whether the New PDP would attend the peace meeting called by President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday, Eze said the New PDP would attend and that “all options are still on the table.”
“If the President agrees to our conditions, if we have agreements on issues that created the crisis, then we will not sign the MoU on Tuesday. So, from now till Tuesday, anything is still possible.
“If we meet on Sunday and our conditions are attended to, then the merger won’t go ahead. If Governor Amaechi is recognised as NGF chair, if the structures are returned to the governors of Adamawa, Kano and Rivers, then our leaders will look back and stop signing the MoU,” he said.
A few hours later, Eze sent a text message to refute his earlier statement that no MoU has been signed.

The statement which came in form of a text message is reproduced below:
“I have just been called that I issued a statement that there is no merger between us and the APC because the MoU between the two parties has not been signed. Please, I have just been corrected by the National Chairman, Alhaji A.K. Baraje that the MoU has been signed and the merger has been effected,” Eze said in an sms sent to our correspondent last night.
Eze later followed this up with another statement last night denying the earlier statement, which reads: “It has been brought to my notice that a statement denying the merger between the New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been credited to me and my office. I was quoted as saying that the MoU between the two parties is yet to be signed and because of this the merger is yet to be effected.
“I wish to state that no such statement was at any time issued by me or my office. Instead, I wish to reiterate that the MoU between us and APC has been duly signed by both the nPDP National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, and the National Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande.
“In this regard, the general public should disregard any statement from whatever source which tries to give the impression that the merger between us and APC is in danger. The truth in that the merger is waxing stronger by the day and that our resolve to save our fledgling democracy is unshakable.”