PDP chieftain wants founding members to take over party

Worried over recent developments in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which have culminated in the exodus of its prominent members, a foundation member of the party in Enugu State, Mr Anthony Nwachukwu, has asked the party’s founding fathers to take over its affairs to save it from going into extinction.

Nwachukwu, who said this in Enugu during a sensitisation rally to announce his aspiration for the party’s state chairmanship position, said the problem of the PDP was her inability to effectively manage successes recorded in past polls, adding that concerted effort should be made to salvage the party.

Noting that the victories of the PDP in the last 16 years in elections has not positively reflected the objectives and purpose for the establishment of the party, he stressed that inter-party crisis and imposition of candidates were the greatest undoing of the party.

He said: “We have a duty to stabilise this party and one way of doing so is by abiding by the constitution of the party, irrespective of whose ox is gored. A situation where because of certain privileges they have enjoyed in the party, people no longer respect the constitution of the PDP should no longer be tolerated. These things are swept under the carpet. That is why I have asked the founding fathers and foundation members of this party to take over so as to return the PDP to its original ideas and formation as the people’s party.”

Nwachukwu, who is a zonal leader of the party, said he decided to vie for the chairmanship position of the party in Enugu State to restore the party as one where equity, unity and equitable distribution of opportunities would hold sway.

On the exodus of party members to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), especially in Enugu, Nwachukwu agreed that it was within the inalienable rights of the defectors, but stressed that it would not have been so in an atmosphere that guaranteed them their benefits and duties within the PDP.