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OKOWA: PDP warns Clark, others to avoid comments likely to cause disunity

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised the elder statesman, Edwin Clark, and other political leaders to stop making incendiary comments capable of inflaming the polity and endanger the forthcoming elections.

Clark had in a recent statement accused Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of betraying the South and asked him to resign his position as the running mate to the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The elder statesman had, however, in January endorsed the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for presidency in the forthcoming polls, citing competence and integrity.

Reacting to Clark’s comments on Delta State governor in a press conference in Asaba, a spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Charles Aniagwu, insisted Atiku and Okowa were committed to ensuring a better Nigeria.

Aniagwu advised Clark and others like him not to fan the embers of discord or mortgage the unity of the country for their preferences.

The statement reads: “We will also advise that, in line with the need to promote unity and the peace of this country, elders must make comments that are in line with our desire to remain as one country.

READ ALSO:‘Obasanjo, Clark disgraced themselves by endorsing Obi’, Kwankwaso fumes

“It might be pardonable for the young ones to talk about the North and South dichotomy, but Clark has been around even before the civil war and he knows the geographic composition of Nigeria with brothers and sisters criss-crossing the North and the South.

“By tradition, not by law, the choice of a running-mate has always cut across the other zones different from that of the presidential candidate. In this regard, delegates of the PDP overwhelmingly elected Atiku. In fulfillment of the constitutional provisions, and after wide consultations, saw that Okowa would be able to add value to his quest to lead Nigeria out of the woods and have a much more united country.

“So, for our elder statesman to cast aspersions on Okowa and label him a betrayer cannot be in the interest of nationalism. If someone must be patriotic, as Clark has shown over time, his recent comments do not suggest the way for our continued unity.

“We also know that Clark has made his choice in this election. First, he took sides with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, even when the last President of the PDP (Goodluck Jonathan) was from the old Rivers State (now Rivers and Bayelsa).

“If we are talking about equity and justice, could it have been fair that the power coming back to the South would have still come to the same (old) state, even when we have 17 states in the south? Are we looking for a regional president or one who would govern the entire country?”

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