The Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has appealed to members contemplating leaving the party to rethink their decision.
The BoT acting chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, made the appeal Thursday against the backdrop of threats by some chieftains of the party in the South-west to resign from the party if the position of national chairman is zoned to the North.
Jibrin said that leaving the party for another was not the solution to rebuilding the PDP, stressing now is the time for all members to unite and work towards rebuilding the party.
“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.
“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.
“Am sure soon, the whole problem in PDP will be resolved”, Jibrin said in Abuja at the party’s 70th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.
He stressed the need to use the NEC meetings positively in a way that would benefit the party.
“We are very aware of various meetings everywhere.
“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”, Jibrin added.
In his remarks, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, said that as the May 21 national convention date approaches, it was expected that there would be disagreements.
Ekweremadu, however, stressed the need for members of the party to resolve such disagreements, saying “that is the resilience that PDP is known for”.
“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.
“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”, the deputy Senate president said.
Gov. Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State, who spoke for the PDP Governors Forum, pledged the loyalty of the forum 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.
