The Peoples Democratic Party has said the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and their supporters are welcome in the PDP should they decide to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress. The opposition party said its doors are open to defectors in the National Assembly.
Speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, PDP, Abdullahi Jalo, said the party was ready to accept Saraki, Dogara and their supporters in the National Assembly back to its fold.
Saraki was one of the leaders of a breakaway faction of the PDP known as the New PDP, which later merged with the APC.
Jalo stated that the PDP would continue to run a party that allows every Nigerian to join it whenever such individual wanted to. According to him, there is no absolute proviso preventing defection from one party to another.
He said, “Any politician is entitled to join any political party that he so desires to join. The PDP is for everyone. We don’t quarrel with anybody. We are still soliciting for more acceptability.
“The PDP is open to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (former Governor of Lagos State and national leader, APC); Bisi Akande (former Governor of Osun State and ex-National Chairman, APC, Chief) and any other persons in the ruling APC.
“The PDP is large enough to accommodate many people of diverse backgrounds. That is why we remain the largest party in Africa. We are never going to stop anybody from leaving or victimise them after they have left.
“The former Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal (now Governor of Sokoto State) left and the party did not sanction him, unlike the APC that is threatening Saraki with sanctions.”
A source in the PDP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, however, told one of our correspondents that some prominent politicians in the APC had begun talks with the PDP in view of the 2019 presidential election.
He, said the PDP would love to have the APC lawmakers, stressing that “politics is a game of number and as far as I am concerned, PDP’s doors are always wide open for anybody who wants to come and join. The more the merrier.”
A former Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bode George, also speaks about the crisis emanating from the National Assembly leadership elections ...
Any political party that closes its doors to politicians is a cult, not a political party. We will open our doors to anybody that wants to join as long as they live according to the law and the constitution of the party. When we were screaming about the Tambuwal issue, Tinubu was rejoicing, he thought he was smart. He forgot the saying that what you do today will have consequences tomorrow. Must they always have their way? Haven’t they been manipulating the system all this while? Tinubu should not seek to make himself too powerful; if not, the APC will die the moment he dies. The party chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, is a seasoned economist and politician and has allowed himself to become Tinubu’s boy and follower.
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