No Injunction On PDP Convention -Wike …As BoT Gives Support

Edo Youths Congress protesting hike in pump price of petrol in Benin-City, yesterday.

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has said that neither the National Convention Committee nor the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was aware of any court order stopping the party’s convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday.
The state governor, who said this while speaking on a Channels Television programme, Sunrise, yesterday, emphasised that “As chairman of the Convention Planning Committee, no one has served me any court order stopping the convention. I am also aware that no one has served the party chairman.”
Wike, who spoke in his capacity as Rivers State governor and the National Convention Planning Committee chairman, “The action brought against the party in a Lagos High Court was done by impostors, and investigations are still on to ascertain their membership of the party,” adding that “the PDP will get stronger in spite of efforts to break it up.
“The re-engineering process of the PDP will accommodate all interest groups in the party. With what is going on across the state chapters, interest groups have a remarkable opportunity to key in and build the party into a formidable opposition party that will reclaim power in 2019,” Wike asserted.
He explained that Nigerians across all the states in the country and in the Diaspora, “still love the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and would continue to support the party in all its programmes and policies” despite losing power at the centre in the 2015 general elections.
The governor urged Nigerians to continue to support the party, adding that what was happening in the party was normal.
“There is nothing wrong with having competing interests in the party. We are in a democracy,” he stated.
He debunked insinuations that the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff was imposed on members of the party, insisting that: “His emergence was not a rubber stamp. It was not a military decision. The party endorsed his emergence at various levels.”
Wike, however, added that “it is not unusual to have people disagree with the decision.
“The National Executive Committee of the party accepted the recommendations of the zoning committee headed by Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, although some interested persons disagreed with it, and it is not unusual,” arguing that “The complaints generated by the re-engineering process of the PDP across the states are being attended to.”
According to him, “The essence of holding party meetings in different states is to identify with, unite and mobilise our members across the country.”
On the upcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states later this year, Wike assured that “the PDP will work to win Edo State”.
On the recent spate of inconclusive, suspended, cancelled or nullified elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Wike said that “The present INEC is inconsistent and lacks the confidence of Nigerians.”
According to him, “INEC, which nullified some elections in Rivers State, has now set up a committee to review its decision and keeps setting up avoidable crises”.
On the recent upsurge in attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta by militants, Wike insisted that “I will not support any attempt to blow up pipelines and sabotage Nigeria’s economy”.
The governor further added that “No South-South governor can sponsor economic sabotage by blowing up pipelines and drive away investors.”
He also said that “I am not a godfather to anybody, and no one is my godfather”.
On the state of the opposition in Rivers State, Wike said that “The APC in Rivers State has been severely decimated, and they can say nothing more than casting the PDP governor of Rivers State in bad light”.
On some of his policies in the state, Wike said that “The current economic realities cannot sustain the continuance of foreign scholarships. With a bill of over N4billion, it is unsustainable”.
Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees (BOT) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed support for the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to continue with the May 21 national convention in spite of all reservations.
The newly elected Secretary of PDP BOT, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, made the position known in Abuja while briefing newsmen on the resolutions of the committee’s meeting.
Maduekwe said that the decision was made at the BOT’s meeting in Abuja on Monday with a view to make PDP stronger.
“In spite of the well-articulated reservations by well-respected and articulate elders and members that the convention should not go ahead, the BOT has decided to support the NWC that our national convention should hold on May 21.
“Secondly, that all the grievances that have been well articulated by well-meaning elders and interest groups would be clearly look into in the process of party reconciliation to see how we can carry everybody along.”
Maduekwe said that the grievances to be looked into would be those that were aimed to make the party stronger and not to pull it down.
He added that the party would look into states that encountered problems in their congresses and make amendment.
Maduekwe said that the committee also resolved to urge the National Executive Committee to make a resolution at the convention that the party’s 2019 presidential candidate should come from the North.
“Part of our resolution is also that the review of the party constitution should be suspended,” he added.
Maduekwe said that the party’s mid-term convention had also been scheduled for 2018.
“When that happens the position of chairmanship will automatically shift to the south in accordance with PDP constitution.”
Sen. Walid Jubrin was elected as the substantive chairman of the BOT at the meeting.