The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has begged party stakeholders from South East not to leave the party over the controversy surrounding the PDP national secretaryship.
PDP South East Zonal Executive Committee, who met in Enugu last Wednesday, had threatened to leave the party if their nominee for the national secretaryship was not accepted.
But at the presentation of the resolution from the South East Zonal Executive Committee meeting yesterday at the PDP National Secretariat, Deputy National Chairman (South), Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, appealed to them to reconsider their position with the party.
Arapaja, who stood in for the acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, said he knew that the people of the zone were not happy with the situation, which he said is inevitable in any political party, “but we can find a solution.”
He likened the threat to leave the party “a landlord running out of his own house, because the house is leaking.
“I know you are not happy and I understand why you are not happy, but even if you are angry out there, we can find a solution.
“There is a solution. This is the only party that belongs to the people. It is the only party where you can express your opinion. It is just like that in any family.”
Arapaja expressed the hope that PDP will overcome its problems and assured the delegation that the National Working Committee (NWC) will study the resolution and forward it to the National Executive Committee (NEC), which he said, has the final say on the national secretaryship issue.
“This resolution will be discussed at the end of the day, during our next meeting.
We will decide on the way forward, and that decision will be forwarded to the NEC which I am quite sure you know is fast approaching. “We will look at it, we will do justice to it, we will do our best.
“But you know, when we transmit it to the NEC, which I am quite sure most of the members are present there, some of our leaders who are not here as well, who are members of NEC as well, so we can find a lasting solution jointly to it,” he said.
South East Zonal Executive Committee had on the resolution presented by Senate Minority Whip Senator Osita Ngwi, said the zone has nominated PDP former Youth Leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye as National Secretary.
Senator Ngwu disclosed that PDP zonal leaders met at Enugu State Government House following the resolution of the party’s national secretariat for the South East to present a nominee for the position.
“I need to remind us, or make it clear, that the position of the South East on this issue has always been to find a pathway to a lasting resolution of the impacts and crisis in the PDP.
“We are looking for a lasting peace so that we can perform better in the upcoming and subsequent elections,” Senator Ngwu stated.
According to him, the implementation of the resolution should be a stepping stone to reposition PDP, adding:
“We are not here to make another request, but we are speaking to our consciences so that whatever decision that is taken at the end should be for the interest of the party and a position that is going to support us; a position that is going to lift the morale of the members of this great party towards a sustainable growth and a path of recovery.”
