Bayelsa News
The Peoples Democratic Party has commenced intensified consultations with the 12 Presidential aspirants of the party who lost out in the party’s national convention in Port Harcourt on October 6, 2019.
The PDP governors also hailed Tambuwal and Makarfi for their understanding and spirit of sportsmanship in the last national convention of the party.
The Governor of Bayelsa State, the Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson led his counterparts from Delta and Taraba States, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and Governor Dairus Ishaku, respectively to hold consultative meetings with Governor Aminu Tambuwal òf Sokoto State and a former caretaker Committee Chairman, Dr. Ahmed Makarfi in Abuja on Monday.
Both politicians were frontline presidential aspirants of the PDP.
A statement by the Special Adviser to Governor Dickson on Media Relations Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, stated that the governor spoke to journalists after the close door meetings with the two former aspirants in Abuja on Monday.
Dickson commended them for displaying maturity and a spirit of sportsmanship after the Port Harcourt Convention which was won by former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The Governor said that the visit was part of the decision of the PDP to visit and interact with all presidential aspirants of the party in the last election with a view to encouraging them as leaders of the party in their own rights.
Dickson who is the Chairman òf the PDP Standing Committee on Reconciliation said that the party had commenced series of consultative talks with aspirants and leaders of the party in the bid to recapture political power from the ruling All Progressive Congress in 2019.
He commended Tambuwal for his display of statesmanship and the encouraging remarks he made after the emergence of the party’s candidate in the convention in which he was a leading candidate.
He stressed that the meeting with Tambuwal focussed on the need to strengthen the PDP and provide the requisite support for the candidate of the PDP for electoral victory.
He said. “I am leading a team of the committee of governors to interact and compare notes with our brother, His Excellency Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state. As you all know, he ran a great race and we are all proud of what he did and what he continues to do. We appreciate his statesmanship, we appreciate the way and manner he has been of help to the party consolidating the gains the party is making.
“This afternoon, as part of our decision to go round, visit, encourage and interact with all our party leaders especially all those who indicated interest in the last presidential elections, we have held a fruitful meeting.
“We are actually starting from here and would be leaving from here to visit our former national caretaker chairman and also hold similar consultative meetings with him.
“This is just the beginning of several interactions formally and informally that we are going to have with him and with several other leaders of our party. As you all know, he is a very key player in the unfolding political scenario and we are all committed to reclaiming our country and building a new Nigeria.”
He said that all leaders of the PDP had a responsibility to close ranks, to hold regular talks as opposition politicians to reposition the PDP for electoral victory.
Dickson said that as the nation moved towards the next election, the Indepedent National Electoral Commission and the security agencies had a responsibility to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the country.
He urged INEC and the security agencies to be fair, adhere strictly to the rule of law, and recognize the rights of individuals in the next elections.
Speaking also Tambuwal said that the PDP must remain a strong united party stressing that the emphasis should be on the country and not personal ambition.
Tambuwal who condemned the way the country was being run as a proxy said that Nigeria needed a president who would deliver effective governance.
He said that he was resolute in his decision to give total support to Atiku in pursuit of victory for the PDP in the next elections.
In his remarks, Makarfi said that while the aspirants went into the election as aspirants, they emerged collectively as a party.
According to him, he had long years years of national and political relationship with the party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar which had not changed.
He said that the PDP would be victorious in the 2019 elections.
