The newly-appointed National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, wants the five governors and other party chieftains who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to come back to the ruling party.
Adamu Mu’azu made this appeal at the party secretariat in Abuja on January 22, 2014, Wednesday.
He admitted that the immediate past leadership of the party offended many of the defectors through its actions and inactions, promising that their grievances would be addressed by the new leadership.
The Chairman hinted that his first task would be to set up a genuine reconciliation committee to address the grievances of members across the nation, observing that those that defected could not have done so just for the fond of it.
“We are going to look at the various events and actions that were taken in the recent past. Whatever injustice done to members would be corrected. We will apologise to those the party offended,” he said.
Adamu Mu’azu also seek support of the Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, who paid him a courtesy visit.
He wanted Lamido to help reach out to the five governors before the envisaged reconciliation committee comes on stream, noting that being a member of the “rebel” G-7 Governors, Lamido should be able to influence the five governors.
Mu’azu pleaded with the five governors and other chieftains that left the party to reflect on what they had benefitted under the platform of the party, assuring that the PDP would not foist a culture of impunity under his watch.
Lamido, who gave his briefed the journalists before the meeting, was unflattering in his comments on the leadership of the PDP under Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, saying Tukur’s era was divisive and vindictive.
“I hold nothing against Alhaji Tukur because I respect him as my elder. But one cannot be happy seeing party members being suspended and chased away by the leadership.
“The PDP failed under the last leadership. If Governors and National Assembly members were leaving and you said you were not worried, then you should know that something is wrong with you.
“Many of our members were unjustly insulted, humiliated and abandoned by the immediate past leadership of the party. The G-7 Governors were made to feel unwanted, pained and traumatized,” he said.
A heavy fire has gutted a three story building along Area 10, Garki, in Abuja in the late hours of January 22, 2014, Wednesday.
