PDP Woos Obasanjo, Atiku, Others As Okowa Heads Convention Committee
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tuesday, inaugurated its Convention, Disciplinary and Reconciliation Committees as part of efforts aimed at rebuilding the party ahead of the 2019 elections.
The Convention Committee is to be chaired by the governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, while Alhaji Sule Lamido and Senator Abiodun Olujimi were named deputy chairman and secretary respectively.
Nyesom Wike and Ibrahim Dankwambo, executive governors of Rivers and Gombe States respectively will co-chair the Reconciliatory Committee while Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi was named Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee.
Inaugurating the committees, Chairman, PDP National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi charged members to do their best in bringing back into the fold of the party, all those who left the PDP for one reason or the other.
“Reconciliation is very important. We must reconcile and bring back all those who have held important positions in the past including past President, Vice President and others,” said Makarfi.
He added that the reconciliation is not restricted to post 2015 when some members quit the party following the defeat it suffered in the last general elections.
“The reconciliation goes as far back as possible. It is not an issue that has to do with the past one or two years,” he stressed.
Responding on behalf of the Convention Planning Committee, Governor Okowa pledged to conduct a successful convention which he said would “be the first place to showcase our strength,” adding that the convention will be the first of its kind in recent times. “Though a non-elective, we will organise a convention that will shake Abuja and Nigeria,” he said, urging members to get ready to work in the interest of the party.
Ikimi, who said he played a key role in the formation of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), noted that the party is “now dying and is almost dead.”
