Defections: PDP won’t shortchange old members

FOLLOWING the fears expressed by some of its prominent personalities about the attention being received by defectors to the party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has assured its members of adequate protection, accommodation and a level playing ground at every level of political engagement and aspirations ahead of the 2019 general elections.

It said in Abuja on Saturday in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary that the main opposition party has taken note of all concerns raised by the highly respected and committed leaders of the party, as it concerns accommodation of interests as well as new alignments, and has since taken extensive measures that would ultimately ensure that no person or group is, in any way, short-changed.

The statement said while the PDP appreciates and values such concerns, “it is instructive to inform that the national leadership of our party has already envisaged the challenges of an enlarged family and has since made adequate arrangements that would effectively cover all interests for the task ahead.”

The party added: “The repositioned PDP has amply learnt from the past. All members must, therefore, dispel every fear in relation to control of our structure as well as processes for selection of candidates for election, especially on the choice of our Presidential candidate, as such will be handled with the strictest adherence to the principles of internal democracy and zero tolerance for imposition.

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“Our great party has now, more than ever before, become a centre of the new patriotic and broad-based engagements by the overwhelming majority of Nigerians, across board, in the renewed democratic realignment that places priority on rescuing our nation from the misrule of President Muhammadu Buhari and his anti-people All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Whereas the APC has the colossal misfortune of being stuck with a very unpopular and unimpressive Presidential candidate, who has brought unpardonable pain and anguish to millions of innocent citizens, the PDP remains open, as the only dependable platform for all Nigerians, across board, to democratically and transparently coalesce and throw up that credible pan-Nigerian President and a government of national unity to move our nation out of the woods which we have been plunged by the dysfunctional APC. “

The PDP, therefore, urged all members to join forces with millions of compatriots who are already rallying on our rebranded platform to achieve this collective quest, which has become to them, a national emergency, come 2019.