2019 Polls: PDP BoT Brainstorms Over Insecurity …As Secondus Assures Defection Tsunami Against APC

The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, met at the party’s national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja to review the country’s security situation and rising threats to credible, free and fair 2019 elections from many quarters.
The Tide gathered that the party is disturbed by the level of preparedness by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 general elections even as it expressed dismay at the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Briefing members of the BoT, National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus said the alleged registration of minors by INEC in recent elections held in Kano and Katsina states has called into question the electoral umpire’s competence for the task ahead.
“We saw in the last local government election in Kano where children were issued voter cards to vote. It happened in 2015; we will not allow it to happen in 2019,” Secondus vowed.
Present at the meeting were BoT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, former Senate Presidents David Mark, Anyim Pius Anyim, and Adolphus Wabara, former Jigawa State Governor and presidential hopeful, Sule Lamido, ex-aviation Minister, Kema Chikwe and former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema.
Others are former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, publisher of the Champion Newspaper, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mohammed Abba Gana, amongst others.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, says the All Progressives Congress (APC) will experience what he described as “defection tsunami” soon.
He spoke against the backdrop of defection of members of the PDP in some states like Kogi and Adamawa.
For example, a former Special Adviser on Political Matters to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, had led 16 other chieftains and supporters of the PDP to the APC in Adamawa, last Saturday.
Those who left the PDP with him included Chief Felix Tangwami, Chief Medan Teneke, Alhaji Saidu Aliyu and Alhaji Yusuf Dan-Umana.
Gulak had claimed that he and his co-defectors left the main opposition party because of alleged impunity in the party.
“It is time for us to formally register as APC members. It is time to formally bury the PDP in Adamawa State,” Gulak said during the defection.
But Secondus rebuffed the defectors, saying that it was better to go into election with people who the party was sure would work for its success.
The national chairman of the PDP, who spoke with newsmen in an interview in Abuja, insisted that the national leadership and other stakeholders of the party were working hard to make sure that the party wins the 2019 elections, and replaces APC as the ruling party at the national level.