THE chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Walid Jibrin, has attributed the festering crisis in the party to internal and external forces.
Nonetheless, he said that the party was taking steps to resolve the crisis and restore the party’s glory through genuine reconciliation and mediation.
Senator Jibrin, in Kaduna, on Friday, while commenting on a latest court verdict terminating the Ahmed Makarfi’s chairmanship, noted that the challenges “coming from both internal and external forces” were bound to happen.
“We are engaging in genuine reconciliation and mediation that will make us stronger to win Edo and Ondo governorship polls, the re-run in Rivers State and capture power in 2019,” he added.
He also said that the national convention of the party would go ahead as scheduled based on the party’s constitution and guidelines.
“We are yet to see any judgement suspending the national convention. Whichever way, if we decide to appeal and we are given accelerated hearing, nothing will stop the convention.
“We will get the judgement copy and study it and thereafter take necessary actions, but whoever is out to destroy our efforts, particularly the Edo primaries, God will not forgive such person, because we have all the INEC documents authenticating the Edo primaries.”
In view of this, he called on those having any court case to withdrawn them in the interest of the party, stressing that court cases were not a good omen for the party.
The PDP chieftain called on members of the party to remain calm and law abiding and do away with attacks on individuals.
“We have observed the interest shown by some people who are committed to killing the PDP. We will x-ray the situation because we are opposition party dealing with issues that will help Nigeria rather than abusing individuals.
According to the elder statesman, “the BoT is capable of resolving the problems after due consultation” adding that “God will not allow anybody to be used to destroy the party.”
He averred that a true party man knows that the decision of the party is supreme, appealing to party members not to allow personal interest to override their sense of judgement.
“The ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, came to us as a shock but we are calling on our party members not to be discouraged as the party is taking necessary steps to resolve the problem, restore the glory and carry on with the national convention as planned,” Senator Jibrin said.
He also called on politicians to practise politics with caution, adding that “politics is not madness” and should not be practised as such.