PDP National Chairman Mu’azu Extends Olive Branch To Warring Members, Calls For Ceasefire

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Politics Tuesday, May 12th, 2015

By Ayo Balogun – Following the lingering clashes among members of the ruling PDP, its National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu has urged members across the country to put aside their differences, come together and work for stability of the party.

Mu’azu who is currently out of the country for bed rest made the call Tuesday in a press statement.

“I wish to charge all members that though we have had our setback, we are not down and out.

“The PDP remains the largest political party in this country. What we need now more than ever before is to unite as therein lies our strength as a family. Fighting ourselves will not yield anyone any good.

“Our members therefore must remain focused and join forces with their leaders at all levels to actualize our collective quest to rebuild the PDP and re positioning it to regain power in 2019”, Mu’azu stressed.

He observed that as the National chairman and a key stakeholder in the party in the last 16 years, Mu’azu stated he quite understood and appreciated the concern, pain and frustrations of the party’s members regarding defeat in the recent general elections, adding that he was deeply worried about the division the development has generated within the PDP family, especially the call for or against the dissolution of the National Working Committee (NWC), noting its unpleasant direct consequence on the PDP collective challenge.

The Chairman also recalled: “in the course of events, there have been reactions and counter-reactions among party members; mistakes have been made, some of them avoidable, but this is the time to put all of them behind us and move ahead as our party and its interest remain paramount and overriding.

“Expectedly, our party has had a share of media bashing and misrepresentations, which contributed immensely to the misunderstanding we are facing in our fold.

“For instance, in one of the press reactions from my office, the media quoted one of my aides as saying that our party will be “buried’ without the National Chairman, a clear deviation from what was actually said. Such misrepresentations of our party leaders also abound in the social media and we must be wary of them”.

On this, Mu’azu disclosed that he had already issued a strong warning to his aides to henceforth desist from making comments on matters of party’s administration in the media or any other forum whatsoever.

“Having been a state governor on the platform of this party for eight years and having the grace of being a committed member for the past 16 years, I very much appreciate the reactions of some of our members like Governor Ayo Fayose, whose victory in Ekiti in June last year helped to strengthen our party, particularly in the southwest region.

“Nevertheless, in the larger interest of our party, we all must resolve to bury the hatchet, pick our pieces and move on to rebuild our party and return to our winning ways”.

He noted in the wisdom of the party’s leadership, the PDP has set up the machinery in motion by the constitution and inauguration of the Post Election Assessment Committee headed by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, saying the needful thing to do at the moment was for all hands to be on the deck, with the committee to come up with meaningful report that would provide answers to the party’s challenges and roadmap for the future.

He indicated that his absence from the country has lately led to some apprehensions within the party, resulting in various public interpretations, hence explained that sequel to rigorous campaigns and its attendant toll on his health, he needed to yield to the advice of his doctor to “take a two weeks bed rest for proper checks and recuperations”.