Alhaji Bamanga Tukur

Chuks Okocha

In a move to stem the mass exodus of members from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to opposition political parties, the party has resolved to reconcile the various factions thrown up by conflict of interests among its members nationwide.

The party said there was no way it could win elections with a divided house and factional members in the states.

The National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, reiterated this  when he received the report of the committee headed by the former deputy national chairman, Shuibu Oyedokun, that reconciled factional groups in Benue State.

The Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the Benue State Chairman of PDP, Dr. Emmanuel Agbo, are involved in factional crisis in the state.

The report of the peace committee that reconciled the factions in the Benue chapter of the party was submitted yesterday to the National Working Committee (NWC).

PDP had last week set up a committee headed by former Minister of Aviation, Alabo Graham-Douglas, to reconcile the factional groups in Kano State.

Speaking while receiving the report, Tukur stated that the party cannot win elections when members are split into factions across the country, adding that the party would ensure that all the factions are reconciled before the next elections.

He acknowledged the fact that there would always be problems arising from disagreements and conflict of interests, but stressed that the leadership at all levels must be prepared to listen to the grievances of aggrieved members with the view to settling them before they get out of hand.

“We will continue to reconcile warring factions within the party nationwide because we need to be united before we can win elections and deliver the goods to the electorate.

“There will be problems but we need to listen to the grievances of aggrieved members for us to build a strong party. We need to be united to build a strong government and to build a strong nation,” Tukur added.

Earlier, Oyedokun regretted that there were five failed attempts to conduct party congresses in some local governments in Benue State in the past, as a result of disagreements.

He attributed the cause of the disagreements in the state chapter to attempts by certain local leaders to exclude perceived enemies from the party.

According to him, but for the timely intervention of his committee in the Benue crisis, there would have been massive exodus of members in the last few days and urged party leaders to allow interested persons to join the party without restrictions.

Other members of the peace committee are Chief Don Etiebet, Alhaji Dauda Birma, Mrs. Bola Doherty, Senator Jonathan Zwingina and Dr. Mohammed Shata

Meanwhile, the party has appealed to Nigerian youths to continue to support the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, stating, “If Jonathan fails, then the PDP has failed, if he performs well, then it is to the glory of the party.”

The PDP National Youth Leader, Alhaji Umar Chiza, who addressed members of the party from Akwa Ibom State also said, “What Nigerians need at this time is peace and unity. Let there be unity, let there be peace. We need peace in this country. There cannot be development in this country without peace and unity.”

According to Chiza, the Jonathan administration “is doing very well despite security and other challenges confronting the country, and Nigerians are already beginning to feel the impact of some of the programmes of the administration.”

The youth leader cited the improvement in public power supply which has been achieved through dedicated transformation of the power sector and gave assurance that Nigerians will experience almost uninterrupted power supply as soon as most of the new power station come on stream.

Chiza said the achievements of the President is the achievement of all members of PDP family including the youths and appealed to them to be ambassadors of peace as there cannot be development in an environment where there is no peace.

“I urge all youths and PDP members to continue to give President Jonathan total support because if he fails the entire PDP has failed and if he succeeds all PDP members have succeeded.”

Earlier in his speech, the Coordinator of the Akwa Ibom PDP Youth Vanguard, Jonathan Udofia, said they were at the party secretariat to thank the party leaders for their support to the governor while the legal battle lasted and for providing the platform that saw the emergence of Akpabio as the executive governor of Akwa Ibom State.

“The verdict so given by the Federal High Court in Abuja is not only a victory for Chief Godswill Akpabio but it is equally a victory for the party and for the people Akwa Ibom,” he said.

Udofia called on PDP national leader to sanction Frank Okon for dragging Akpabio to court based on the outcome of the party primaries without exhausting internal mechanism of the party.