Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jibrin has appealed to aggrieved party members in view of the choice of Delta state Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as the party’s vice-presidential candidate.
He advised that members should allow the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and its chairman, Senator Iyochia Ayu to return to the country.
Senator Walid in a statement made available to newsmen in Kaduna on Sunday maintained that as soon as the party chairman and its presidential candidate returned, the process of reconciling all aggrieved members shall commence with Atiku Abubakar to head the committee.
The chairman of BoT listed the members of the committee as; PDP Presidential Candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP Vice Presidential Candidate and Governor of Delta State, Chief Okowa, PDP National Chairman, Senator Iyochia Ayu and his NWC, PDP BOT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibril, Representative of BOT membership, Current 13 PDP Governors, Former PDP Governors, Former PDP Ministers and Some PDP Elders from Zones and States.
The statement noted that, “this was in view of great concern and great sense of feeling on the various recent comments coming from some of our PDP members and some prominent Nigerians on the choice of Chief Okowa, the Governor of Delta State as the Vice Presidential Candidate by the Presidential Candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of our Party PDP, the biggest party not only in Nigeria but the whole of Africa.
”All the comments and various submissions are very normal in any political set-up in Nigeria today with PDP being the strongest and most prominent party that has all potential to form Government in 2023.
”We must come back to our senses by all our members and all most responsible and respectful Nigerians by giving total support to the party to enable it to form Government by holding all political positions in Nigeria in 2023.
”It is therefore very necessary that when our Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and our National Chairman, Senator Ayochia Ayu return to Nigeria very soon from abroad, the following must be done immediately:
”A very important visit must be undertaken to Governor Wike.
”It is very important to note that Governor Wike is a very responsible and very obedient member of PDP who assisted tremendously toward building the party to what it is today.
”We must therefore encourage him to never leave the party. In light of the above, I want to appeal to all PDP members and leaders to shun unorthodox comments aimed at reducing and running down the party. We must come together and unite ourselves as earlier established by our founding fathers.
”We should therefore shun any bad comment aimed at dividing us. We must be ready to forget and forgive ourselves by encouraging Nigerians to continue supporting us and our party.
”It is my strong appeal to all current and former Governors, and former Presidents of Nigeria not to add more fuel to the fire but to always try to quench the fire from spreading.”
