By Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA – The leadership of the major political party in the land, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Friday said it has discovered plans by some ‘elements’ within the party to hold a parallel convention in December.

Former Minister of State for the FCT, Solomon Ewuga; Former Minister for Police Affairs, Maina Waziri; Former Minister for National Planning, Senator Sanusi Dagash; Former PDP North Esat Senator, Senator Abdulaziz Usman; the former Minister of State for Works, Alhaji Saleh Shehu and Former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel during the official declaration ceremony of the Former Governor for the National Chairmanship of the Peoples Democratic Party at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 18/10/2017

The party said the plan was the creation of some elements within the party who have allowed themselves to be used by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to cause divisions in the PDP.

Reading from a party statement yesterday while addressing journalists on the development, National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye described the move as an act of sabotage, which should not have been contemplated by any genuine member of the party, in the first place.

“This is totally uncalled for and a complete act of sabotage. Those making such plans cannot be said to be honest members of our party, the PDP. They are not patriotic but just out to destroy our party.

“The National Caretaker Committee (NCC) has been working very hard to carry all party members and supporters of the party along in all the preparations for the forthcoming National Convention holding in December 9 – 10, 2017.

“We are also putting our resources in place to address all the fears earlier reported by some national chairmanship aspirants. One of the steps taken by the leadership is to make available and in good time, the comprehensive names of all the delegates for the national convention to all the aspirants before the convention. We therefore see no reason for any honest member of this great party to want to disrupt our programmes, except they are of course working for the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC),” the statement read in part.

Adeyeye also noted that the ruling party’s decision to postpone its convention earlier slated for November was to enable it monitor the conduct of the PDP elective convention, saying the parallel convention was one of the schemes aimed at birthing fresh crisis for the party.

“We are not completely oblivious of the plans by the APC to sabotage our convention. Apart from the internal fighting within the APC, one of the reasons why (sic) the party postponed its national convention to next year was to enable it to monitor closely our convention with a view to destabilizing our party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“The planned parallel convention is one of those ideas of the APC to create divisions amongst members of our party. It will be most unfortunate for members of our party to allow themselves to be used against the party especially in the light of our recent painful experience.

“The National Caretaker Committee is willing and ready to address all the concerns of our party members regarding the forthcoming national convention,” he said, urging “Members to take advantage of our open door policy to ventilate their opinions, concerns and grievances.”

The party also argued that as part of subtle plans to weaken the PDP, some of its high profile members were recently arrested on “Trump-up charges of corruption.”

The statement continued: “We had cried out a few weeks ago that there was a list of about fifty (50) top leaders of our party earmarked by the ruling party for arrest and incarceration.

“In the last one week, the former governor of Taraba State, Mr. Abubakar Danladi and the former Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, two prominent members of our party were arrested by the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

“These are all part of the agenda of the APC to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity around PDP members before and after the national convention. It is also part of the overall strategy of the ruling party to turn Nigeria into a one party state.

“We call on Nigerians and members of the international community to be vigilant to ensure that the APC does not institute full blown dictatorship in the country,” it said, adding that “The only reason why (sic) the APC is hell bent on killing the opposition in Nigeria is due to its nonperformance and inability to deliver on its campaign promises. They have failed Nigerians and they know too well that they can no longer convince Nigerians to vote for them again in 2019.”