By Henry Umoru
ABUJA — FORMER Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador Designate, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, yesterday, called on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to expel from its fold anyone who makes utterances that are not in tandem with the party’s agenda, mission and vision.

PDP was like aircraft without radar

Maduekwe, a former National Secretary of the party took a swipe at the immediate past administration of the PDP,  saying the party was like an aircraft without radar prior to the coming on board of the present National Working Committee, NWC, which is being led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

Speaking when he submitted the 2011/12 report of the National Congress and Planning Committee of the party to the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur at Wadata House, Abuja, Headquarters of the PDP, Maduekwe said: “Reckless statements and utterances must be sanctioned by the party. Those undermining the unity of the nation should be expelled from the party.”

He also called on the present NWC to, as a matter of urgency, engage in regular meetings at all levels to discuss not only election matters, but policy matters as well, adding: “We are not only a ruling party but a governing party.”

Receiving the report of the convention, Tukur, however, reassured Nigerians that PDP was determined to give the kind of good life anybody could wish anywhere in the world, just as he stressed that PDP was not only thinking of one prosperous Nigeria, but one Africa.

According to him, “we may be of different ethnicity but our differences are our strength. Our diversity is our greatest strength. PDP is always working to ensure that Nigeria is one nation, one people. We are not only thinking of oneness but Africaness. If Chinese are talking of being Europeans, we cannot do less.”

He lamented that “people who should know better are now saying that they wish Nigeria is not what it is today.”

Thanking the committee for doing a thorough job, the National Chairman assured that the recommendations by the committee would be put to good use to serve as a guiding light for proper running of the party in the next four years.

On behalf of the National Chairman, National Executive Committee (NEC) and NWC, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, thanked the Maduekwe committee for what he termed the, “the best organized congress in the history of the party.”