On the run? PMAN ‘renegades’ disappear after ‘satanic’ verses!

AUSTIN FAIR NWAULU

Key members of the ‘Peace Committee’ faction of the embattled Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) may have gone into hiding following a threat by a Lagos High Court to send them to jail if they violate its ruling on the authenticity of the Pretty Okafor-led Caretaker Committee.

The erring members who only a fortnight ago at the formal launch of the PMAN Biometric ID Card, written an offensive letter to one of its sponsors, Heritage Bank, which almost scuttled the event but for the presentation of the court papers to a representative of the bank. And they’ve been unrelenting  until their cookie crumbled recently.

Kelvin Luciano who presides over the Peace Committee and Orits Williki a top member therein, allegedly wrote which implied that the Caretaker Committee body lacked legitimacy.

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back when a meeting to reconcile both factions ended in a gridlock last week in Abuja.

The meeting which was convened at the instance of the Registrar of Trade Union, Mrs N. Mbougu was held at the Federal Ministry of Labour Secretariat in Abuja ended dramatically when Mr Okafor walked out angered by suggestions that the industrial court ought to have handled the ruling. But he and his exco members maintained that they stood by the judgement establishing the interim caretaker committee.

”All the people I went with are musicians and bonafide members of PMAN but almost all the other parties who are parading themselves as such are not. I am not averse to reconciliation but it can only work if all musicians in Nigeria, including those present there, embraced the current Biometric ID Card Scheme,” Okafor insisted.

Also maintaining that since there is a judgement in place and the fact that ”nobody is above the law” he said that there’s no reason it should not stand until it is vacated.

He therefore advised the house and musicians to eschew bitterness ”in the overall interest of PMAN members, the music industry and the entire nation which stands to gain from one united and formidable industry,”

But as if basking in the euphoria of the suggestion that the industrial court should have handled the matter, the Peace Committee members allegedly went haywire and started declaring the Okafor-led Caretaker Committee as ”illegal”, an ill-wind that did not blow them any good.

According to a reliable source, a stern warning has been issued to them through their counsel to desist from going contrary to the earlier judgement that empowered the emergence and existence of the interim caretaker committee to steer the ship of PMAN without hindrance.

Consequently, our source, they have been running ‘helter skelter’ in search of cover to escape from the looming wrath of the court.

Its Opebi, Lagos office has also turned a ghost house since the beginning of this week while a meeting earlier on convened apparently to further blow its trumpet as the ”authentic PMAN” was also postponed indefinitely on Wednesday.

It is not immediately what their next line of action will be.