PDP Crisis: Dickson warns against hijack of party, calls for emergency NEC meeting

Senator Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa West warned on Wednesday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would lose its selling point if a few people hijack the party ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Dickson equally cautioned that attempts by a few people to forcibly take over control of the PDP would lead to implosion, stressing that the party could not afford the danger of a caretaker committee.

In a statement on Wednesday while reacting to the resignation of seven national officers of the PDP, he observed that the party was fast losing the needed cohesion to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023.

Dickson said, “The National Chairman and NWC members should utilize their powers under the constitution to discipline erring members involved in the nefarious plot to destroy the party. PDP is bigger than any individual and should no longer tolerate people with inordinate ambitions to destroy the party which belongs to all Nigerians. People with ambition must know that unless the party is stabilized and strengthened, their ambition will be of no consequence even if they pocket it.

“If the PDP shrinks from a party for all to a party for a few, it would lose its selling point and many members and leaders will have no option than to review their membership.

“We are not a ruling party at the centre. We don’t have the time, resources and mechanisms to resolve problems that will arise from a caretaker committee which will throw up more problems before the party convention and primaries at the centre and across the states.

“I caution all those behind this crisis not to leave any opening to the APC to exploit with their control of the resources and machinery of Government.

“We should all learn from the challenge the APC has found itself with the appointment of a caretaker committee which is still unfolding. With only four months to the end of the tenure of the current (PDP) working committee, it does not make sense to either push for and force a resignation, or to force the appointment of a caretaker committee on a party with officers who have a constitutionally guaranteed tenure.

“Furthermore, with only about a year to the nomination of candidates in the light of the ongoing electoral acts amendments bill, it again does not make sense to push a divisive agenda that the party may not have the time, resources and mechanism to resolve before the nomination processes and primaries which, by their nature, are divisive.

“Our singular target and focus for now, if we are serious, should be to stabilize and strengthen the NWC by supporting it and correcting whatever may be wrong in-house quietly while putting our effort wholly on the task of identifying and selecting credible candidates and ensuring fair primaries.”