PDP Wants G-5 Governors to Return, Opens Consultation with Them

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has embarked on moves to get five of its governors who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) back under its umbrella.

It was gathered yesterday that the party has reopened discussion with them with the aim of resolving the issues that pushed them to join the opposition party.

Besides, the presidency has joined forces with the party to engage the five governors who defected from the PDP in November so that they could return to the ruling party.

The defected governors are: Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

The leadership of the PDP and the presidency have been reaching out to the five governors to see if they could rethink their defection, a source said

It was learnt that the party and the presidency have commissioned some people to convince the governors with a promise that a compromise could be reached in resolving their grievances.

One of the governors who was contacted a couple of days ago while in Lagos for a meeting with the APC leadership had granted audience to the emissary of the PDP but told him that a change of mind was late as any such move would be suicidal.

“They also know it’s not possible and I told him so. How can we change our mind now? It’s late. We’re gone and gone for good. Even those who have not left, they can’t change their minds, much less those of us who have gone and gone for good,” he said.

The governor explained that it was not a matter of pride but a question of risk elimination, which does not add up at this stage of the struggle to combat the rudderless leadership of the PDP.

“We’ve been on this for many months now and they could not do anything to stop us. Instead, what we were confronted with was a very arrogant leadership that thought everything started and ended with them. But this decision is to prove them wrong. So, any move to change us now is futile,” he added.

In an apparent confirmation of the new rapprochement between PDP and the defected governors, the party in a statement yesterday said it was holding talks with them along with all major stakeholders of the party to end the festering crisis in the party.

The party also debunked reports in some sections of the media that some senators walked out on its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, when he visited the Senate to meet with PDP senators on Wednesday.

Perhaps it was in light of the new peace efforts to assuage the feelings of the defected governors that Tukur during his visit to the Senate, told reporters that he was not aware that Amaechi and others had left the party.

“Have they defected? They have not gone yet,” he had said in response to the reporters’ inquiry.

According to a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in Abuja, the party will do all within its powers to engage all its aggrieved members so that their grievances can be addressed and peace return to the party.

The party restated the commitment of its National Working Committee (NWC) to resolve all the issues fuelling crisis in the party and to  “ensure that all issues are handled along the lines of these ideals and in accordance with the provisions of the PDP constitution, the constitution of Nigeria and the laws of the land. We reiterate that no unlawful means will be used under any guise whatsoever in handling the issues.”

The party urged all its members to remain calm and focused, adding that it would come out of the current challenges stronger than ever.

On the report that some senators walked out on Tukur, Metuh described it as untrue, saying it is “totally false and deliberately planted by the enemies of the PDP to mislead the public and impede efforts by the leadership to achieve total reconciliation in the party.”

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