No Party Member Should Attack Another, PDP Chairman Calls For Unity

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu, has appealed to members across the country to stay united to ensure the party’s success at all times.

He made the plea on Wednesday at an expanded meeting of the PDP Board of Trustees and the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja.

“With unity, everything is possible,” Ayu told the PDP leaders at the meeting. “I call on every member of this party to forget their differences. If there are differences, we must settle such differences in-house.

“No party member should attack another party member. If there are any issues, we have different organs of the party to resolve party differences … because such distraction must not be allowed to continue.”

Ayu’s plea to the party faithful comes against the backdrop of the rift between Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

Governor Obaseki recently took a swipe at Governor Wike over his reaction to comments by Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, that PDP members who defected from the APC in Edo were not happy and do not feel accepted into the new party.

He had also said Nigeria needed strong democratic institutions and not strong men, stressing the need for the PDP to position itself to reclaim power at the centre in 2023.

Restore Nigeria’s Glory

Governor Wike, in his reaction, described the comments by his Edo counterpart as a rant, saying governance was about feeling and touching, and not a memorandum of understanding.

He also described Governor Obaseki as a ‘serial betrayer’ and apologised to a former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, whom he said had initially warned the PDP against accepting his Edo counterpart into its fold.

For the PDP chairman, it is important for party leaders and members to settle their differences using in-house mechanisms and to position the party in a position to reclaim power at the centre in 2023.

“The (National Working Committee) NWC under my leadership is calling on all our leaders and members of the party, not just in Ekiti and Osun States, but all over the country to join us in fighting for those elections because they are winnable if we put aside our differences and make sure we work as a team,” he said.

“It is very important that we unify the party. By unifying the party, we will win elections in the state chapters. By winning elections in the state chapters, collectively we will be able to put those votes together and we will definitely win the next presidential election.

“Nigerians believe that only this party will come to power and restore the glory of Nigeria and it is on this note that I am calling on every single member of the PDP family to put their differences aside. We are not out to fight against ourselves; our goal is to unite the party, go out as we used to do, win elections as we used to do.”