National publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, says the ruling party is against the imposition of “consensus candidates” on its members.
Metuh’s declaration comes three weeks after the party adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as its “sole candidate” for the 2015 presidential election.
Addressing some aggrieved youths from Rivers state who staged a protest to the party’s national headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, Metuh said the party would continue upholding true democratic tenets and principles in its nomination processes.
He said members would be given the opportunity to elect and nominate aspirants of their choice as the party’s candidates for elections in 2015.
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“We are promising you that that is what will happen in Rivers and every single state of the federation,” he said.
“Our party is against consensus candidate and any idea of intimidating the people. There should be no intimidation and coercion.”
Metuh urged the youths who were protesting against an alleged plan to impose a candidate on them to remain calm, advising them to motivate and mobilise people to vote for their candidates in the 2015 general election.
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Speaking on behalf of his fellow protesters, Oni Quakers, said they were aggrieved over the endorsement of an Ikwere indigene as the PDP candidate ahead of the forthcoming election.
He said Ikwere had ruled the state for 16 years and it was time for the Ijaws to rule the state.
Similarly, Sara Egbe, a founding member of the PDP, who hails from Aku local government area of the sate, decried the situation, saying that unless the national leadership of the party ensures true reconciliation among aggrieved members, the PDP might lose Rivers in 2015.
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