The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday met with select leaders of the party as part of the ongoing efforts to resolve the lingering crisis in the party.
The party has been battling various crisis involving groups and individuals, leading to the loss of the Presidential election.
Before now, the NWC held a series of meetings with members of the National Ex officio, state Chairmen, select BoT and members of the National Assembly.
On Tuesday, Acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, said there was need for a fresh meeting based on the outcome of previous ones.
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Speaking before the session went into close door, National Organizing Secretary Umar Bature said the meeting was to douse the pressure and tension within the party as a result of the aftermath of the 2023 elections.
Bature said the party believes its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar won the election, “but we are in court and without prejudice to what the court will decide, we will keep it aside.”
“Everyone knows what happened in 2023. We contributed both individually and collectively . If you rise to speak, I beg you to spell out your own role in 2023 elections, either positive or negative before you jump to accuse someone else either negative or positive. Everybody had a role to play. When you rise to speak, please, tell us the role you played.”
“You can accuse anybody here for playing pro or anti party activities. The aim is when we are through, we will have an idea of what to do with the party before we move to other organs like the National Caucus, NEC for the way forward for the party. I believe there is hope for the party because our membership is still very strong.
“We are conscious of the issues because we went to Port Harcourt and I am sure, that will come up here. I will explain why we went to Port Harcourt. We believe there are people here who will accuse some of our elders of certain roles they played. Suspension is not an answer to a bad behaviour towards the party,” he said.
In his preview of the party performance in the last election, Bature said in the State House of Assemblies, “we have 342 members, we have 116 members in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, we have 36 members and we have 13 Governors. We believe strongly that the ongoing tribunal cases in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Ogun, Kaduna and Sokoto States will be in our favour.”
Meanwhile some of the stakeholders invited for the crucial meeting also decided to stay away, among them were Atiku and former Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike.
