About 25 youth groups have asked five of the G-9 members and founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led by a former vice president, Alex Ekwueme, to take over the affairs of the party to avert its imminent collapse.
The groups also called on a former minister of agriculture, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, a former Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, a former minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana and a former Senate president, Iyorchia Ayu, to team up with Ekwueme and salvage the party.
The main opposition party is currently embroiled in leadership tussle which has seen the chairman of the national working committee been inaugurated at the PDP National Convention in Port Harcourt. Ahmed Makarfi and the party’s embattled national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff are now laying claim to the party’s leadership.
But some of the groups, who yesterday called on the founding fathers to take over the party’s affairs include: Siyasa Akida Network, SAN; PDP National Volunteers; PDP Youth Mobilisation; Arewa Social Media Forum, ARMEFOR; PDP Youth Vanguard; PDP Youth Volunteers and PDP Youth Frontiers.
After a meeting of the groups in Abuja, the coordinating chairman, Aliyu Tukur Gantsa said that the crisis between Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Makarfi factions was grounding the party.
He stated that though many of the founding fathers of the PDP have died, those still alive should not allow the party to disintegrate.
“It is in the interest of our party, the survival of democracy and the existence of Nigeria that we want these founding fathers, that suffered and sacrificed so much during the military regimes to ensure the return of the nation to democracy, to take control of the party now, before things go out of hand,” Gantsa said.
Also speaking, the coordinating secretary of the groups, Dr Yusuf Dingyadi said that they believed that if the founding fathers took over the party, the contending parties could be easily brought together for amicable resolution of the crisis.
Eighty-three year old Ekwueme was the chairman of the PDP when it was formed in 1998. He chaired the party for only three months before he stepped down to run for the 1999 presidential election.
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