PDP BoT chairman begs members not to leave

Walid Jibrin, acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) board of trustees (BoT), on Thursday appealed to members contemplating of leaving the party to shelve the idea.

Jibrin, who made the appeal at the party’s 70th national executive committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja, said leaving the party for another was not the solution.

“Many of us who are founding members of PDP will not leave the PDP and the PDP will never die. We will continue to be in PDP,” he said.

“Whatever mistake that is there in the party, we must be there to correct it and make our contribution, leaving PDP is not the answer.

“I will like to appeal to everyone who intends to leave PDP to stop that, we must unite and all work together in order to build PDP.

“PDP is within a very good marking and I do not think I see anything wrong with PDP. Every party has its own problems and we should use our own problems positively. I am sure soon, the whole problem in PDP will be resolved.”

He advised that NEC meetings should be used positively in a way that would benefit the party.

“We are very aware of various meetings everywhere,” he said.

“I have decided that I will not attend any meeting apart from the properly organised meetings because we have to be very careful in the way we hold meetings these days.”

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, who also spoke at the meeting, said it was expected that there would be disagreements as the national convention approaches.

Ekweremadu appealed to members of the party to resolve such disagreements.

“So I like to appeal to our party men and women that we must find a way of resolving our differences in the best interest of our party,” he said.

“PDP is the only party in Nigeria which we can say belongs to everybody and to nobody.

“The time is now for us to make sacrifices and to show compromise so that the party will remain strong.

“It is also a time for us to show alternative to what is going on in the country currently, so that Nigerians can trust us again with governance in 2019.”

Ibrahim Dankwambo, governor of Gombe, who spoke for the PDP governors, pledged the loyalty of his colleagues to the decision of the NEC of the party.

“As a party and democrat, we are bound to have disagreement and agreement on issues. Once the party takes position, we are bound to follow the decision of the party,” Dankwambo said.