By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- VEXED by the media war between the Campaign Organizations of the Presidential aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the National Chairman of the Party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo has summoned the Director General of the four presidential aspirants of the party to a truce meeting.

Disclosing this in Abuja on Wednesday when he received in his office a delegation of the National Democratic Institute, NDI who are on pre-election assessment mission in Nigeria, Nwodo said that the party national leadership was worried about the smear campaign by the campaign organizations, stressed that it was prepared to take all necessary steps to halt the trend before it degenerates into something else.

It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, immediate past National Security Adviser, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau and the Kwara state governor, Bukola Saraki have all picked forms and submitted, struggling it out to get the PDP presidential ticket to contest for the 2011 Presidential election.

According to the PDP National Chairman, “the way they are going about their campaigns is giving us serious cause for worry.  We have sent out invitations to them for a meeting where we will plead with them to base their statements on issues and the way they want to run the administration of the country.

“We shall tell them to stop all these ethnic, religious and mundane propaganda and base their arguments and statements on issues that are germane to our constitution and manifesto of our party.

He warned that if the aspirants refuse to mend their ways, he will drag the matter to the National Executive Committee, NEC of the party which is the second highest decision making body of the party.

“If they refuse to obey what we at the National Working Committee (NWC) decided to tell them, we shall be compelled to convoke a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to obtain NEC approval to spell out the guidelines to follow in their campaigns and we shall remove the issues of sectionalism, tribalism and all such mundane statements, issues that divide us as a country.  Our party is very firm in the issue of integrity of our party”, he said.

Nwodo further told the delegation jointly led by the former President of Botwana, Sir Quett Ketumile Masire and former Prime Minister of Canada, Joe Clarke, that the party now has zero tolerance for thuggery and has already warned all aspirants that they will be disqualified if they engage or sponsor any form of violence during the party’s primaries.

According to him, it was very possible to have violence-free elections at intra and inter party levels with proper leadership in the political parties that will not hesitate to penalize their members that employ violence during the intra and inter party elections.

When asked by the delegation about the security situation in the country, Nwodo who noted that there were security concerns in the country, stressed that the recent appointment of an Inspector General of Police and a new National Security Adviser has brought the situation under firmer control.

“Kidnapping takes centre stage but our security agencies are now on top of it. The Inspector General of Police told me that for the first time in one full week there was not case of kidnapping at the flash point. The Inspector General of Police is a practical policeman not the type that sits in his office and issues out instructions, he goes to the spot himself. We have a right cop.

“We also have a new National Security adviser. He is somebody we have confidence in, he is coming with vast experience in the military”.

Nwodo also told his visitors that a new time table for the party’s primary elections will be released after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) releases a fresh time-table for the 2011 general elections.