Meanwhile, with less than four months to the 2019 general elections, the leadership of PDP is set to welcome new defectors into its fold from APC, Vanguard has gathered.
Set to welcome new defectors
By Dirisu Yakubu
ABUJA—Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow his re-election bid push the nation into a state of lawlessness.
The party also counselled chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, not to succumb to pressure to manipulate the electoral process in favour of President Buhari, saying doing so would birth a crisis capable of destabilizing the nation.
This is even as the party is set to welcome new defectors into its fold from All Progressives Congress, APC, following post-primaries crisis in the ruling party.
In a statement by the party’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, PDP warned handlers of the president to play by the rules and called on Nigerians to checkmate them before it is too late.
The statement read: “PDP’s fresh caution to INEC chairman is predicated on an alleged secret meeting he held with President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, at the Presidential Villa last Friday.
“Prof. Yakubu should note that the polity is already tensed over INEC’s listing of President Buhari for election despite his failure to present the constitutionally required academic credentials like other candidates. This development casts a dark shadow on the credibility of INEC to conduct a transparent election.
“INEC is invited to further note that Nigerians are aware that by President Buhari’s declaration, in an affidavit, that his said certificates are with the military, his nomination documentation is, therefore, constitutionally incomplete, making him ineligibile to contest the 2019 presidential elections.
“By failing to write to the military authorities to release his claimed certificates, Mr. President leaves Nigerians with no option than to hold that he does not have the credentials and the 1999 Constitution (as amended) did not provide that affidavits can be used as a substitute for any candidate’s credentials.
“Mr. President’s affidavit also shows that he did not submit any certificate in 2015, making his candidacy for that election improper and defective under our laws.”
PDP set to welcome new defectors
Meanwhile, with less than four months to the 2019 general elections, the leadership of PDP is set to welcome new defectors into its fold from APC, Vanguard has gathered.
The defectors, drawn from states, which held controversial congresses, are said to have resolved to cross over following the apparent unwillingness of the APC national leadership to “do the right thing.”
From Imo to Ogun, Kaduna to Zamfara states, the ruling party is engrossed in intense internal conflicts ocassioned by alleged compromised primaries in the recently concluded nationwide congresses held preparatory to the general elections.
Consequently, Contact and Integration Committee of the PDP chaired by former Cross River State governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, will in the weeks ahead meet with these aggrieved members, in a move intended to boost the party’s membership ahead of the polls.
Speaking exclusively with our correspondent, yesterday, a key official of the party, who declined to be named, said the PDP was confident of “landing new members,” citing what he called a “fruitful contact” with a good number of disgruntled members of “the other party.”
Asked what the PDP intend to offer them given the fact that names of candidates for the respective offices have been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the source said not all the intended defectors are aspiring for elective offices.
“It is a good time for the PDP and indeed for our dear country. The party which has no political experience has shown to the world how not to conduct democratic congresses and primaries.
“Those who are aggrieved for obvious reasons and who have waited for justice but met a brickwall in the autocratic leadership of their retired labour unionist, have realized the need to team up with us.
“Our leaders particularly Senator Imoke and his group have had a fruitful preliminary meeting with some of these people and they will continue in this regard in the days ahead.
“Ours is a party of accommodation and we have the platform to take care of every body. Do not forget that majority of these aggrieved people are not necessarily seeking elective offices. They are angry because a process was allegedly compromised. We are here to give them hope and assurance,” he said.
Echoing the optimism of the Lagos state PDP governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje who a fortnight ago told journalists in Abuja that the party was set to welcome new members in the state; the source added that what happened in the Lagos chapter of the APC is “good news for our party.”
He continued: “Ogun and Lagos are providing interesting scenarios for the PDP and you need not ask how. In Lagos, they (APC leadership) initially rejected the outcome of the governorship primary only to reverse itself and bow to pressure from powerful quarters.
“Now, how do you expect these people to be pacified? Well, that is not our problem as we are only interested in boosting our support base,” he noted.
Outgoing Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun’s frosty relationship with his party leadership over the rejection of his anointed successor, Adekunle Akinlade is threatening the sole of the APC in the state.
Elsewhere, Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha and his Zamfara state counterpart, Abdulaziz Yari are subtlety pushing for a change in the party’s leadership, for reasons not unconnected with their respective states’ primaries.
- VanguardNgr
President Buhari
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