PDP ’LL WIN AT LEAST 32 STATES IN 2015 –TUKUR

The Peoples Democratic Party  on Monday boasted that it had no reason to lose sleep as it would convincingly  win most of the 36 states  of the federation  during the 2015 general elections.

While its  Chairman, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur,  believes that through hard work, the party would win at least 32 states, the Board of Trustees Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, said,  “We  will do what we know how to do best”   to sweep the polls.

Tukur spoke  when members of  a PDP caucus   from  the South-West visited him  in Abuja  while Anenih did same  after a three-hour closed-door meeting with a former President, Chief  Olusegun Obasanjo,  in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

“We need to work hard now because we have a  (presidential) mandate to move beyond 23 states in our control and win at least 32,” the PDP chairman told the caucus led by a former governorship  aspirant  in  Oyo State in 2011, Prof. Taoheed.

But one  of the main opposition parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, flayed  the presidential  mandate, saying, “It is clear that the PDP does not believe that Nigerians are going to vote and have their votes   counted.”

Tukur, however,  believes that  for the PDP to achieve the   mandate, reconciliation must first take place in the party so that all its  members  would  begin to invest in the future through  hard work, diligence and dedication to the cause of the party.

With this, he said, the PDP  would win the polls   without any foul play.

Tukur  said,  “We have to show electoral strength this time. In doing it, we will work hard and work well. We will move with the speed of jet and we will deliver without any foul antics. I use this opportunity to appeal to our members to bury the hatchet and cast away whatever forlorn hope they nurse about the future.

“I appeal to our members to begin to invest in the future right away and doing so involves hard work, diligence and dedication to the cause of PDP.”

He said that the National Working Committee of the party under his leadership had concluded plans to embark on a tour of all the states  to carry out reconciliation and to put the party on a sound footing  for  the  general elections.

Tukur said that it was worthy of note that the Independent National Electoral Commission  had been known to conduct elections that could be adjudged to be  free, open and credible  under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The PDP National Chairman stressed that the membership of the party had a responsibility to prove that the party had the widest spread in the country.

Earlier, Adedoja, who spoke on behalf of the 15-member  delegation,  had said that they were in Tukur’s office   to discuss critical issues involving the PDP in the South -West.

 In Abeokuta,   Anenih, told journalists after his meeting with Obasanjo  that the  internal wrangling in the PDP   would not stop it from winning the  general elections.

“PDP is the  party to beat; when the time comes, I assure you we will do what we know how to do best,”Anenih, who is known as “Mr Fix it,” boasted.

He dismissed the planned merger of opposition political parties as incapable of posing any threat to the ruling party during the polls, saying  that all hands were already  on deck   to ensure that the party was repositioned for better performance in  2015.

Asked to give an insight into the agenda of the   meeting with Obasanjo, the BOT chairman said they discussed issues affecting the  nation, including   insecurity and the crisis rocking the ruling party.

“I am here to see my leader (Obasanjo); I am here to pay my respect and, indeed, I am here with my colleagues, some members of the BOT of our party, to discuss some issues that affect the corporate existence of this country; some issues about the insecurity in  the country and some issues about the party itself,” he said.

Anenih however declined to make public, the outcome of the meeting .

“As you see, we are all smiling. Can’t you see me smiling? And my leader too is smiling. So, we are quite happy about the outcome. For now, it is not for public consumption,” he stated.

He also used the opportunity to debunk recent claims by  Governor Ibikunle Amosun that the Ogun State chapter of the PDP was  “dead and burried.”

“Let me tell you, almost all of us here are members of the PDP in Ogun State; so you cannot say that PDP is dead in Ogun State. The leader of PDP in Nigeria is here and that is the former President,” Anenih  said.

When approached by journalists, Obasanjo merely retorted, “Did you hear what our chairman said?”

 Among  the party chieftains at the meeting   were the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Committee on Reconciliation in the South-West, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State; his Jigawa State counterpart, Alhaji Sule Lamido; a former Kaduna State Governor, Senator Ahmed Makarfi; former Nasarawa State Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, and the party’s BOT Secretary, Senator Walid Jubrin.

The sacked PDP National Vice- Chairman (South-West), Chief Segun Oni, a former National Auditor, Chief Bode Mustapha; and  former Ogun State PDP Chairman,   Joju Fadairo, were also in attendance.

Meanwhile, the ACN has denounced the presidential mandate, saying that Jonathan and Tukur must begin to realise that Nigerians would not vote for them in 2015.

National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  in a telephone interview with one of  our correspondents, said, “ They have been talking about plans to  capture 32 states.

“If you observe the lexicon of the PDP, you will  see that there is nothing democratic about them.  By the time Tukur and Jonathan wake up, they will realise that they  have been living in a fool’s paradise because Nigerians  have  deserted them a very long time ago and no amount of coercion can make them achieve that kind of fathom ambition.

“The only thing is that it probably confirms our fear that there may be no election in 2015 since they have been given a mandate  to capture 32 states. They are not talking about elections.

“Nigerians should be very, very weary. Don’t forget that last week, we raised the alarm that the way the Federal Government was going there was no guarantee for free and fair elections.  Nigerians should take note and be very, very vigilant but we want to assure Tukur and Jonathan that Nigerians will not vote for them in 2015.”

Speaking in a similar vein, his counterpart in the All Nigerian Peoples Party, Chief Emma Eneukwu, dismissed Tukur’s assertion as an empty boast.

He said, “He (Tukur) is only trying to console himself by talking big. The elections will be done by Nigerians who will rate them according to their performance in the past 12 years.

“Nigerians are not fools who can be deceived by mere boasts by a party that has plunged the country into terrible darkness. The day of reckoning is approaching.”

Source: Punch