‘Fresh PDP’ is APC plot to kill opposition, PDP alleges

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was behind the emergence of the new PDP.

It said that the APC wants to use the group to cause confusion in the opposition so that President Muhammadu Buhari will run as a sole candidate in the 2019 general elections.

This was stated by the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, when he spoke with journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

He described the new PDP office at Asokoro District of Abuja as “illegal” and that it was meant to deceive.

A five-member group, said to be members of the PDP and led by Obi Nwosu, had on Wednesday, ‘opened’ a new secretariat for the main opposition party. Other members of the new group are Alhaji Hassan Adamu, Chief Olusola Akindele, Chief Godwin Duru and Franklyne Edede.

But Ologbondiyan, alleged that the group is being used by APC to cause confusion in PDP adding that the ruling party had come to realise that it is now unpopular among Nigerians.

“We will not allow the APC to distract us. APC has become very worried since we held our convention. As we speak, the constitution of the APC requires them to hold convention every two years but they have not done so.

“They are so unsettled that the PDP is progressing and progressing progressively. That is why they are using some people to cause confusion in our party but we have gone beyond that. What is more important now is that we are embarking on membership drive to win more members back to the PDP.

“President Buhari wants to be the sole candidate in 2019; that’s why they (APC) want to cause crisis in our party. We are going to stand as a party and we are going to fiercely contest elections in 2019. Our doors are open to Nigerians and anyone who is interested in contesting an election in 2019 can come in.

“I can assure you that majority of people still hanging around in the APC are coming back home, the PDP. APC is going to the next election as an empty party,” Ologbondiyan said.

According to him, the ruling party after failing to disrupt the PDP’s recent national convention had now found out that the success of the convention “marks a new beginning in our sure and steady step to rescue our dear nation and her people from the misrule of the APC.”

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He further said, “Recall that after our convention, the APC attempted to inject disagreements and rancour among our members, particularly in the South-West, but also failed.

“Thereafter, any person, who for any selfish reason, resort to the ignoble part of attempting to create disaffection and disunity in our party, will be made to face the consequences of his or her actions as provided for in the constitution of our great party and extant laws of the land.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Senator Walid Jibrin, on Thursday disclosed that the party was ready for talks with the members of the new PDP.

Jibrin, who addressed newsmen in Kaduna, refused referring to the new PDP as a faction of the party, saying that they were merely aggrieved members of the party, whose action were sequel to the outcome of the December 9, 2017 elective convention of the party.

 

 

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