Prominent leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met on Tuesday in Abuja to review the party’s performance at the last general election.
The meeting, which was chaired by the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, listed 183 chieftains from across the six geopolitical zones for attendance.
Damagum canvassed the need to reconcile aggrieved members and to strengthen the party for future challenges.
He said: “We have had series of meetings with the members of the national ex officio, state chairmen, Board of Trustees members as well as members of the National Assembly.
“This is a continuation of the discussions on what happened during the previous meetings. The whole idea is to unite the party.
“Initially, the meeting was supposed to be for only the founding fathers of this party. But we realised that after over twenty years of the existence of this party, a lot of people have also graduated to be founding fathers.
“From our first set of governors who may not really be the founding fathers, we have had leaders who have contributed their own quota to be recognised as members of this great party and leaders in their own right”.
The party chairman urged stakeholders to be mindful of their utterances while voicing their grievances, saying that PDP remains one family regardless of individual grievances.
The PDP National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, gave a breakdown of the party’s performance at the last general election.
Bature said: “In the State Houses of Assembly, we have 342 members. We have 116 members in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, we have 36 members, and we have 13 Governors. We believe strongly that the ongoing tribunal cases in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Ogun, Kaduna and Sokoto States will be in our favour”.
Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Adolphus Wabara cautioned members on their public statements regarding proceedings in the ongoing election petition cases.
Those who attended the meeting included a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel; and PDP Deputy National Chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja
Others are Chief Olabode George, Chief Tom Ikimi, Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri, Dr Babangida Aliyu among others.
However, three members of the G-5 who were invited to the meeting did not show up. They are former Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu).