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| Chief Edwin Clark |
Foremost Ijaw
Leader and a foremost supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Edwin
Clark, has accused some national leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
of being insincere in their attitude towards the second time ambition of the
President.
He also accused
them of following the President to his campaign rallies instead of going to
their home states to also galvanise support for the President.
Clark stated this
in Abuja on Saturday while playing host to the PDP Aspirants Forum who paid him
a courtesy visit.
The visit was
aimed at expressing their grievances over how the party treated them (PDP
aspirants ) in the last primaries in various states.
Clark said he was
particularly sad with the way the PDP governorship primary was conducted in
some states, especially in Adamawa State.
He said,
“Everybody was ready to hold the governorship primary in Yola. People were
waiting in Yola for the primary and the PDP brought the primary to Abuja
overnight, hired people from Nyanya and others.
“Whereas they held
the congresses in Yola, they later resorted to hire people to attend the
primary here in Abuja.
“There is
injustice in the party. Some of the national leaders don’t want the party to
succeed and they are disloyal to the President.
“I have asked them
to go to their states to campaign, but they refused. They are following the
President everywhere. Some of them want the party to fail.”
He begged the
aggrieved aspirants not to leave the ruling party for the opposition, the All
Progressives Congress, saying the party has nothing to offer Nigerians other
than to enthrone a northern President.
Members of the
group hinged their grievances on the grounds that the party did not hold
primary to pick any of its candidates, saying that all its flag bearers were
handpicked by godfathers.
The group,
however, threatened to institute a court action to nullify the candidature of
all the candidates of the party in the forthcoming general elections.
Clark however
pleaded with the aspirants, stating that the party would not forget their
labour and that they should work together to achieve success for the party in
the forthcoming polls.
He added that when
the party wins the election, all the efforts of the aspirants would be
rewarded.
The group had also
threatened to work against the interest of the party in the forth-coming
general elections if their grievances were not addressed.
The aspirants said
they were highly disappointed by the manner in which the party’s primary were
handled across the country.
The aspirants, who
came together under the leadership of Chief Richard Lamai in Abuja, had also
threatened that the resources they expended on campaigning and wooing delegates
for the botched primaries must be refunded to them before the commencement of
the elections, otherwise they would work against the PDP success at the
elections.
The forum
comprised of aggrieved aspirants who lost out in the party’s primaries across
the six geo-political zones of the country.
Speaking at the
forum’s emergency meeting in Abuja, Lamai said, “We are collectively aware that
reconciliation and reintegration had not been effective in our party. The
leadership of the party has carried on as if nothing happened and without due
regard to aspirants who invested resources and time in building our party.”
He added that the
aggrieved aspirants did not lose out in the primaries due to their inability to
mobilise and canvass for votes from delegates, but that the leadership of the
party across the states had candidates already anointed for the PDP tickets.
Lamai, however,
attributed the challenges being faced by the PDP across the country to the
“lack of internal democracy and political deceit in the party by the
leadership.”
Also speaking at
the meeting, two aggrieved members from Kaduna and Rivers states noted that the
monies spent on the procurement of nomination forms and mobilisation of
delegates to the botched primaries must be refunded to them before the elections.
Culled from Punch newspaper
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