The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday said it is making moves to bring back into its fold former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Kano State governor, Musa Kwakwansho and other aggrieved governors who had dumped the party.
Making this disclosure during an interactive session with journalists in Ile-Ife, the PDP National Secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo, said he currently heads a committee saddled with the responsibility of speaking to some former aggrieved members.
Oladipo stated: “Vice President Atiku and Dr Kwankwaso are some of those we are in contact with. In case of our former VP, Alhaji Atiku, who was humiliated by the owners of APC during the party’s presidential primaries, we believe he canonly enjoy his deserved influence in PDP and we are in contact already.”
“Dr Kwankwaso is also being contacted because we know they belong to us and the earlier they realise that PDP remains the only party where they can only enjoy their deserved leverage, the better. We are in contact with them and we are hopeful of fruitful negotiations,” he stated.
According to Oladipo,the PDP reconciliation committee recently constituted by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party would also meet all identifiable and genuinely aggrieved former members of the party who are in the APC and other political parties.
He maintained that all these developments were aimed at achieving total reconciliation before the February 2015 general polls, with a view to further consolidating on the party's advantageous position ahead of the exercise.
Commenting on the crisis rocking its Ondo State chapter of PDP, Oladipo disclosed that the party was close to total reconciliation of all aggrieved factions, explaining that both Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr Segun Mimiko, and one of the leaders of old PDP in the state, Chief Nathaniel Oke, were in Ile-Ife as part of reconciliation efforts.
•Adapted from Saturday Tribune. Photo shows Atiku.
NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.