Acting President Goodluck Jonathan called his ruling part to order Tuesday amid squabbling between factions over candidates for the 2011 presidential vote that he said “court anarchy”.
Jonathan also slapped down “premature” suggestions that he would be the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the election, held after the expiry of the term of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua.
“Jonathan expressed concern that the party is gradually drifting towards intractable crisis,” a PDP statement said after a meeting of its top decision-making body.
“Our great party is governed by a constitution, just as our country is governed by laws. We must abide by the laws … that hold us together. To do otherwise is to court anarchy,” he said.
He called on all PDP leaders “to sheath their swords and desist from acts that can complicate an already difficult situation”.
In a first sign of cracks ahead of next year’s presidential vote, a rebel faction last week called for sweeping inhouse reforms, prompting the suspension of 19 leaders.
Under the party’s rotational system, Jonathan — a southerner — cannot stand in the election next year as the north is still entitled to another four-year term in the presidency.
An obscure group last week put up campaign posters in Abuja backing Jonathan, of which his office denied knowledge.
The office said Tuesday that he “decried a situation where some persons were already positioning for the 2011 elections even when an electoral time table is yet to be released.”
Jonathan, previously deputy president, took over in February from Yar’Adua whose ill health kept him in a hospital bed for months.
In a declaration at the end of its meeting, the PDP passed a vote of confidence in Jonathan “for his heroic role in stabilising the polity since his assumption of office as the acting president”.
The divisions in the PDP widened on Monday when a court ruled that its chairman Vincent Ogbulafor should face a 1.5-million-dollar fraud charge for crimes allegedly committed in 2001 when he served under former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
The decision to drag the chairman to court was seen as a ploy by party dissidents to hasten the ouster of the Ogbulafor-led party executive.
In a speech Tuesday, Ogbulafor swore he was innocent as the party threw its weight behind him.
He said his team had been hard at work to “reconcile our people and rebuild our strength” resulting in the return of top party members.
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday formally announced his return to the PDP.