2019: PDP targets estranged ex-members in the APC in bid for triumph

Following the Supreme Court ruling resolving the leadership crisis in the party, and as part of its 2019 election plans, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has inaugurated its Convention, Disciplinary and Reconciliation Committees.

The composition of the Convention Committee features the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as chairman, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Senator Abiodun Olujimi as deputy chairman and secretary respectively.

Also, the governors of Rivers and Gombe states, Nyesom Wike and Ibrahim Dankwambo, will co-chair the Reconciliatory Committee, while Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi was named chairman of the Disciplinary Committee.

The chairman of PDP National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, while inaugurating the committees, charged members to do their best to bring all former members back into the fold of the party in order to set it on better footing ahead of 2019.

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He said, “Reconciliation is very important. We must reconcile and bring back all those who have held important positions in the past including past President, Vice President and others”, adding that the reconciliation scope was not limited to post-2015 election defeat fallout which saw some members quit the party.

“The reconciliation goes as far back as possible. It is not an issue that has to do with the past one or two years”, he added.

Responding on behalf of the Convention Planning Committee, Governor Okowa pledged to conduct a successful convention which he said would “be the first place to showcase our strength,” adding that that the convention will be the first of its kind in recent times.

“Though a non-elective, we will organise a convention that will shake Abuja and Nigeria,” he said, urging members to get ready to work in the interest of the party.

Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, said he would work with the Reconciliation Committee to ensure that all aggrieved members returned to the party. Ikimi, who reminded members that he played a key role in the formation of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), noted that the party is “now dying and is almost dead.”

Close political watchers predicted that once the PDP got over its leadership crisis with the Supreme Court ruling, it was likely to make strategic efforts toward reconciling aggrieved members, while also courting dissatisfied members of the APC, in order to build a formidable front to challenge the APC in the forthcoming 2019 election.

They will read these developments as the anticipated turn of events, while observing that the party still had much ground to cover if it will stand a chance in 2019.

 

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