DICKSON: PDP DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYBODY, GANA, ADENIRAN, OTHERS MUST RETURN

YENEGOA, Nigeria – The Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson on Sunday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), remained a national asset which belonged to all Nigerians and not for any individual.

He also described Professors Jerry Gana and Tunde Adeniran as icons of democracy and leaders of progressive politics in the PDP and the country, who must be wooed back to the PDP.

Dickson in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Francis Ottah Agbo in Yenagoa, was reacting to the exit of Adeniran and Gana to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).The governor who is also the Chairman of PDP Reconciliation Committee

believed that while the leaders of the party are important stakeholders in the scheme of things, the the real stakeholders of PDP were the ordinary Nigerians in whom sovereignty lies.

Dickson said the most rational thing for all PDP stakeholders to do now was to start a process of building consensus and reaching out to players across party lines with the PDP leading the coalition to wrest power from APC in 2019.

He said, “No one Governor, no one Lawmaker or leader of PDP can own PDP or singlehandedly produce a presidential candidate. Therefore, what is required of PDP leaders now is to work with all parties including those who have left the PDP to produce a credible candidate that is acceptable to the generality of Nigerians on the platform of PDP to defeat the APC in 2019.”

The Governor said his Reconciliation Committee would continuously engage aggrieved party members including those who have left PDP to return to the party, stressing that “we must be together to save our party and country from collapse.”

He said with less than one year to the 2019 general election, time is of essence and the right thing to do now is for all men of good will to come together to challenge the APC.

Dickson also called on PDP members not to lose faith in the party. He said the next election is critical to the survival of democracy and the nation, stressing that history will be unkind to PDP leaders if they fail to lead a coalition to unseat the APC-led Federal Government, which he noted has put the nation on a precipice!