A Peoples Democratic Party faction, under the aegis of Concerned
Candidates and Stakeholders of the PDP, said in Abuja on Tuesday it
would inaugurate members of its National Working Committee on January
22.
The faction also claimed it had proscribed the PDP Governors Forum, which it described as oppressive and retrogressive.
Emmanuel Obi-Nwosu, who also claimed to be the director-general of the
faction, spoke on behalf of the group at the conference, which held at
the faction’s secretariat located in the Asokoro District of Abuja.
He said, “Finally, the inauguration of the authentic National
Working Committee of our great party will take place on Monday, the 22nd
day of January, 2018. This is to enable all members of the NWC, who
travelled out for holidays, to return.
“Only organs of the party as duly recognised by the party’s constitution
shall henceforth function as stipulated in the constitution.
“To this end, the hitherto oppressive and retrogressive anti-democratic
PDP Governors Forum, which is completely alien to the party’s
constitution, is hereby proscribed.”
He assured members of the faction that under his watch, all presidential
and other elective office aspirants will be guaranteed a level playing
field during the primaries.
“No more shall our party entertain any form of list, whether unity
or divisive. The party constitution shall be followed to the letter in
the conduct of all future party elections,” he said.
Obi-Nwosu, who denied that his group was working against the ongoing
peace process within the party, insisted that the action of his group
was one of the major means of resolving internal dispute.
He added, “What happened at Eagle Square does not require reconciliation
but restitution. What we are doing is to ensure that what was done
wrong is done right. What we need in PDP now is thorough internal party
democracy.”
He, nevertheless, said his group would not go to court to seek redress, explaining that “the Board of Trustees of the party has been vested with powers to arbitrate in the matter.”
While refuting claims that the BoT has accused the faction of trying to
destabilise the party, he said the BoT Chairman, Sen. Walid Jibrin, “called me personally and said he had gone for medical checks and when he returns we will have a meeting.”
He added, “What we are doing is part of internal mechanism to ensure that the PDP does not go down. We are asking for restitution.
“You reconcile two people when there is a misunderstanding. You don’t
reconcile people when a man kills another person’s son. What you do is
restitution. There has to be punishment. The only thing the BoT will do
is to do the right thing.”
On why they were operating from another secretariat, he said that rather
than take laws into their hands, they decided to open their own
secretariat. He stressed that fractionalism was allowed in every
democracy, which he said “is our fundamental right as contained in the Constitution. We have a right of freedom of association.”
He denied the allegation that some members of the faction were not registered members of the party, saying, “We are all card-carrying members of the PDP and most of us served in the recent national convention.
“Letters were written to us in recognition of our contribution to the party. You don’t appoint non-party members into the party.
“It is an exercise in futility to paint a bad picture of members of this
party by saying that we are not party members. We can’t sell our
party.”