From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it has uncovered plans by some of its members to hold a parallel convention on December 9.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, stated this at a press briefing at the party’s national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
He said the members involved are working in concert with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stage parallel convention, as a means of sabotaging its effort to reposition the party ahead of the 2019 general election.
According to him, “we are not completely oblivious of the plans by the APC to sabotage our convention. Apart from the internal fighting within the APC, one of the reasons why the party postponed its national convention to next year was to enable it to monitor closely our convention with a view to destabilising our party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“ The planned parallel convention is one of those ideas of the APC to create divisions amongst members of our party. It will be most unfortunate for members of our party to allow themselves to be used against the party especially in the light of our recent painful experience.”
Adeyeye said the PDP National Caretaker Committee has been working hard to carry all its members along in the preparation for the national convention. Consequently, he said, there is no need for any member of the party to be contemplating holding a parallel convention, except the person is working for the ruling party.
Besides, the party spokesman has also taken steps to address recent concerns by some of its national chairmanship aspirants in the build-up to the convention.
“One of the steps taken by the leadership is to make available and in good time, the comprehensive names of all the delegates for the national convention to all the aspirants before the convention. We, therefore, see no reason for any honest member of this great party to want to disrupt our programmes, except they are, of course, working for the ruling party, the APC,” he said.
Meanwhile, a PDP support group, ‘Why It Must Be PDP in 2019 (WIMBPDP2019)’, yesterday said any plot by the APC to sabotage the efforts of the opposition party to regain power in 2019 will fail.
The national coordinator of the group, Chinedu Eya, said Nigerians are fed up with the ruling party, and are ready to give them the “red card” in 2019.
He commended former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for giving the APC a “ red card” and noted that it is sign of the fate that awaited the ruling party in 2019.