The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur says equity and justice shall guide him in rebuilding the party.
Alhaji Bamanga, while speaking with members of the party from Nasarawa State, led by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku said that infusion of equity and justice in the management of the party was the only way the party could return to its glory and earn the trust of Nigerians.
“I must thank you for the support you gave us at the national convention. There is hope for our country; we came with a new zeal, we came with a new determination and commitment to ensure that our party, the greatest party in Africa takes the lead. With the kind of support I have seen here today, we can achieve more.
“We have a very clear manifesto for our people in order to assist our people take the advantage of the development fortunes that is in our country today, to make it better.
“I have said in my acceptance speech that we should bring reconciliation and reformation to build our party on equity and justice. If we get that on the ground, we can be sure that peace will come; we can be sure security will be with us; we can be sure investment will flow in. These should be our cardinal principles. That is why I want to make sure that we are all on the same page to support the Executive to achieve what we want it to do, in all ramifications,” Bamanga said.
In his speech earlier, Labaran Maku told members of the National Working Committee present that PDP was popular in Nasarawa State but was only unfortunate to have lost out in the last general election.
He said “We were robbed in Nasarawa, we won a clear election; none of us here is happy. We won, but lost in the court. We won clearly, there is no doubt about it. So, you can see that you cannot have twenty-four members in the house of assembly and you say we lost the general election,” Maku stated.
Meanwhile a group, PDP Renaissance Forum has urged the national chairman of PDP, Dr. Bamanga Tukur to revisit the outstanding issue of flawed congresses in nine states in line with the directives of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
INEC in a letter dated March 5, 2012 which was signed by its secretary, Abdullahi Kaugama and addressed to the national chairman of PDP, stated that the Ward congresses in Taraba, Sokoto, Adamawa, Plateau, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Lagos, Anambra and Katisna were not held in line with laid down guidelines for the congresses at the Ward level and thus insisted that other congresses should be postponed, pending when fresh congresses would be conducted.
Coordinator of the PDP Renaissance Forum, Barrister Timi Williams, while reacting to the delay in the conduct of fresh primaries in the affected states, said the group was concerned about imminent mass defection which appears to be looming in some state chapters by aggrieved members of the party.
?“Tukur told Nigerians that it is a new dawn and a new day in PDP, he should summon the political will to do the right thing before opposition parties capitalise on the rift in the party to lure our members out of the party.
?“As it is, we are witnessing the mass defections in Edo and some South West states and this trend might extend to the nine states unless the new leadership of the party delivers on their promise that internal democracy will be entrenched once again in the PDP,” Williams concluded.