Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, says the registration of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot stand.
According to him, since formation, the association was never meant to operate as a political party.
The registration has widely been linked to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who although denied having a hand in the emergence, confirmed that he has associates as members.
In a statement on Sunday titled: “Our PDM is not a Political Party”, Anenih, also a leader of the Movement, noted that “Reports about the registration of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have inundated the polity; and because of my leading role in the formation and nurturing of the Movement, concerned members of the Movement have contacted me to confirm if it was our PDM that has witnessed the transformation.
“After in-depth investigations and extensive consultations with a wide spectrum of the membership and leadership of the PDM, which is just like a pressure group within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I consider it moral to use this medium to clarify that the PDM, which some persons, purporting to be interim leaders, secretly and mischievously promoted and succeeded in registering with INEC to operate as a political party, is not our PDM that worked with other political associations to form the PDP in 1998.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the PDM, which we collectively envisioned under the leadership of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, remains an integral part of the PDP, whose Board of Trustees, I currently chair by the grace of God and the consensus of founding fathers and leaders of our great party. I hereby wish to urge those who look up to me for guidance in this circumstance to remain steadfast with me in the task of building a much more united and formidable PDP and to discountenance the registration and treat it as a political trickery which will not survive the test of time.
“Members of the Peoples Democratic Movement, which is working for the unity and success of the PDP and the Federal Government under the able leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Joanthan, GCFR, should not panic. They should, instead, see it as an attempt to undercut our PDM, which was never intended to be and should not be a registered political party within and against the PDP.”
DailyPost recalls that some zonal leaders of the PDM had distance themselves from the registration, saying they were not carried along.
One of such, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande, had stated that ”PDM was never proposed to become a political party; it was established to stand as a bridge linking the northern and southern parts of the country and between people in different political parties; a meeting point for people in different religions and tribes; a unifying forum for Nigerians from all walks of life.”
Others who disowned the new party include: Senator Abubakar Mahdi (Chairman), Senator Ifeanyi Araraume (Southeast leader), Alhaji Abdullahi Abdulkadir Mohammed (Northwest leader), Chief Ejiofor Onyia (South/South leader), Kabiru Bawa (Northeast leader), Dr. Bala Ahmed Tafida (North Central leader), Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun (Southwest leader), Alhaji Shuaibu Abdullahi and Chief Oluponnle Ebo.
Reacting to to the opposition that has greeted its registration, PDM interim chairman, Alhaji Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, speaking through his media aide, Alaba Yusuf, said “The masquerade behind the anti – Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, the newly registered party, has finally been unveiled. Chief Anenih’s recent press statement is a positive advertisement for PDM and what it stands for.
“There’s no turning back the hands of time. PDM is an idea whose time has come. We are not going to waste our time exchanging words with those who want to live in the past, and continue to impoverish the ordinary Nigerian.
“Let the PDP BoT Chairman resolve the crises tearing his party and the country apart; before dabbling into the affairs of another party over which he has no control.
He added that “Sadly, Chief Anenih’s description of PDM’s registration as “a political trickery” is nothing but an insult to the electoral laws and the credibility of INEC. The beauty of democracy lives on the principles of freedom of speech, association and the right to exist politically.”
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