ABUJA – The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will this week, deploy its Contact and Integration Committee to some states in the federation recently hit by crisis arising from party primaries.
Members of the PDP
The committee chaired by former Cross River state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke is set to meet with some disgruntled members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Imo, Zamfara and Ogun states which governors are currently locked in a battle with the leadership of the party.
Although Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) and Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) are not expected to defect to another party before the elections, there are indications that many aggrieved members in the affected states may jump ship to protest their alleged maltreatment in the primaries.
Speaking with Vanguard yesterday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan said apart from the mentioned states; the PDP will interface with “these people” across the federation before the elections.
Ologbondiyan added that the trouble in the ruling party is a fallout of the failure to practice internal democracy, noting that the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP will provide accommodation for all Nigerians “desirous of taking this nation to the next level.”
He said: “Our Committee (Contact and Integration) is reaching out to these people and I can assure Nigerians that we will provide accommodation for all of them in our rebranded platform.
“APC has nothing to offer Nigerians and that has been made glaring with the controversial congresses and primaries they conducted. We want these people to come on board so that together, we will rescue Nigerians from the pain the APC has caused us since they assumed office in 2015.”
The party’s decision to reach out to the aggrieved members of the APC may not be unconnected with remarks made by Governor Okorocha recently to the effect that the ruling party may lose as much as five million votes to the opposition in the event of failure to resolve the crises rocking the party.
Already, Zamfara state chapter of the party is locked in bitter acrimony with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, following the declaration by the latter that the party will not field candidates in all elective offices as it failed to beat the deadline stipulated by the umpire for the conduct of primaries.
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