By Michael Odiah
A Presidential spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council and the Delta state Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu has rebuffed statements by some quarters that the party is sliding into extinction saying that the naive claims are only imagination of critics.
Speaking this morning on AIT during Kakaaki Morning Show, Aniagwu stated that the internal crisis rocking the party is just a distraction. "PDP, a party with eleven states, it's a norm for analysts to critic and make statements even in ones they have no idea about, but I believe PDP will come out strong after this."
On the suspension of the National Chairman of the Party, Iyorchia Ayu for anti-party activities, the spokesman said: "I don't think this is even the right time to do this. This is a party currently undergoing judicial process, the party was hasty to suspend an individual at this time, one would expect we would be working together to reclaim our stolen mandate."
He added that: "the ward lacks the powers to carry out such action against a member of NEC; section 57 of the PDP laws authenticates that. They didn't even give him room for fair hearing".
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| Charles Aniagwu |
"That a man didn't win his ward doesn't make him less relevant, the sentiments of the electorates at the time speaks a lot, taking cognizance of the presidential election results and the now governorship elections in Delta.
"If you loose in your party or ward, it doesn't have to be said to be anti-party. Recall OBJ in 1999 lost entire southwest but yet won the election. Anti-party is by taking actions that are inimical to the party, like what Wike did in rivers state, you don't need a soothsayer to tell you that is anti-party."
While speaking on Zoning, the Information Commissioner explained that there has been a misconstrued position on zoning. "Zoning is a party decision and not a national decision. The PDP constitution states that there will be zoning of office and not zoning of contest. Look at the PDP constitution, it is stated there. Assuming Atiku won in 2019 would have anyone forced him to not contest again when the constitution permits two terms?"
"You can say that there is a national sentiment for power shift and not a decision of the PDP. So those saying PDP went against its zoning policy are not informed. Those crying for Ayu to step down because of zoning, will you also tell Damagu to step down who happens to be next in line, because the party is structured that the next in line is usually from same region as the chairman and the next which is the secretary is from the opposite direction. So if Damagu decides to step down, would Anyawu also be forced to step down so that Governor Wike's agenda will be activated?"
"People tend to point at the Asaba declaration of which the reports are there. When the governors converged in Asaba, it was in respect in banning of open grazing, it was when they met in Lagos that zoning became an addendum." Aniagwu said.
