NationalMirror PDP won’t tolerate indiscipline again –Jonathan ROTIMI FADEYI July 5, 2013 •Rivers party leaders pledge support for President, rap Amaechi President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would no longer tolerate any act of indiscipline from its members. Jonathan spoke when he received leaders and elders of the party from Rivers State, who were at the Presidential Villa to discuss issues relating to the crisis rocking the party in the state. According to the President, Rivers State needs very strong leadership, focused leadership, committed leadership and maximum political unity and stability. Jonathan noted that he had been working with people of Rivers State and maintained very robust relationship with them. He said: “I have been working with people of Rivers State for quite some time before I got here. I have had a robust relationship with my brothers and sisters in Rivers State. They are very reliable people who I believe will not speak from both sides of their mouths. “For us to have a stable democracy we have to have a strong political party. And that is why we get worried when we noticed some of the indiscipline in some of the political parties. And the new PDP that we are all working together for no longer tolerates this indiscipline. “All over the world parties are supposed to build on ideological differences. May be close, if you look at the classical case of the Social Democratic Party, SDP and the National Republican Convention, NRC, that were created by the military, their ideology was a little to the right and a little to the left. “That is the essence of politics. But in a situation where somebody is in a particular political party but his faith is in another political party, for those who are not holding political offices, yes you can be excused, but if you are holding an elective office you won’t be in that party and be working for another party. Otherwise, why are you there?” After the meeting, which lasted for about two hours, the state PDP Chairman, Felix Amaechi Obuah, said the visit was to pledge the leaders’ loyalty to Jonathan’s administration. Obuah said members of the party in Rivers State were not happy that Governor Rotimi Amaechi was opposing the President, describing it as shameful. He said: “We are pained and our heart bleeds today that the main champion of opposition in the country against Mr. President and indeed the Federal Government of Nigeria is our own son, Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. “This is indeed shameful. We do not know what has come over the young man. Is it that he wants to destabilise the PDP before his eventual movement to his new party, having been handed over the Action Congress of Nigeria/ All Progressives Congress (ACN/APC) structure in Rivers State? “Unfortunately, he has repeatedly rebuffed every effort by us and well-meaning Nigerians to make him show remorse and respect for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “Mr. President, we sincerely apologise to you and the First Lady on this sad situation. We appeal that as the saying goes, ‘you do not visit the sin of the father on the son’ and implore Your Excellency, to remember us in prayers. “To demonstrate that Rivers people are not with Governor Amaechi in this hostile attitude against Mr. President and our great party, we shall continue to support his suspension from the PDP by the National Working Committee until he retraces his steps from engaging in anti-party activities.” Speaking with journalists after the meeting, former Rivers State governor, Peter Odili, said the PDP leaders were at the State House to meet with the President, describing the meeting as cordial.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 09:02:55 +0000