BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

ABUJA—DEPUTY National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, Bode Ajewole, yesterday, said the party had not only come to stay in Nigeria’s political terrain but will wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the next presidential election.

He said the failure of the ruling party to give Nigerians a new lease of life, coupled with lack of internal democracy necessitated the formation of PDM, insisting that his party was the one to beat in the coming poll.

He described the party as “the greatest and most successful political family force in Nigeria” given that since its formation in 1987, it had not only produced many parties but also successful politicians in the country.

Ajewole, a former House of Representatives member, faulted those insinuating that the pressure group founded by the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, was not supposed to be registered as a political party.

He said:  “Some people are just being economical with the truth.  Twice in the past, under the military regimes of IBB and Abacha, we struggled to register the PDM as a political party but we were denied the chance. This time around, in a civilian setting, we got it right and all welcome its birth.”

Ajewole lamented the roles of those, he noted, did not want the young party to survive.
He said: “History can bear us witness that PDM had in it great politicians like the late Senate President, Dr Chuba Okadigbo,   Asiwaju   Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lai Mohammed, Atiku Abubakar and a host of others who are now members of different political parties.”