By Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA—THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, assured Nigerians that it would remain a national platform that will never die due to the exit of big personalities as proven by the case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and even governors.

Olusegun Obasanjo

According to the party, the exit of these personalities has not stopped it from remaining a potent political platform.

Speaking in Abuja while handing over expression of interest and nomination forms to Dr. Alex Obiogbolu for the November 18 Anambra State gubernatorial election, National Organizing Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee, NCC, of the party, Senator Abdul Ningi, said PDP had risen from the ashes occasioned by the gale of defections in the aftermath of the 2015 general elections.

He said: “We said one of our cardinal principles is that this party is not a one-man party. This party has individuals that left the PDP beginning with the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua died, etc.

“That has been our plight. This party can do without a single individual or groups of individuals. Five of our governors left, we were wounded but not defeated and we are rising up from ashes of those who have left,” Ningi said.

According to him, the recent leadership crisis, rather than signalled the death of the PDP, has  strengthened and given it an opportunity to do a sober reflection.

He said: “We are also happy that the crisis has given us the opportunity to look inwards, to look at mistakes, look at where we went wrong and try to make amends.

‘’This party has also left its doors open for those who have left to come back because PDP is their natural turf.  A lot of them have discovered that where it matters is this party.”

Also speaking, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, explained that the party brought down the cost of its gubernatorial expression of interest and nominations from N11million to N6 million to ensure mass participation by members.

Obiogbolu picks Anambra guber form

Meanwhile, Dr. Obiogbolu, who yesterday became the first governorship aspirant from Anambra to pick gubernatorial nomination form, has reiterated the commitment of the PDP to recapture the state November 18 this year.

He observed that the mass defection of members of the party happened only at the top but with no impact at the grassroots level.

The aspirant recalled that crisis in the Anambra PDP opened the way for the crisis that threatened its very existence, noting that it arose from impunity and imposition of candidates. “By the time the cancer came,” Obiogbolu stated, “it took the whole body and went to the head.”