Abuja — The Democratic People’s Party, DPP, under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd.), yesterday, said  it had not engaged the PDP in discussion over a possible merger of the two parties.

DPP Director of Media and Publicity, Mr Abubakar Yusuf,   gave the clarification in a telephone interview in Abuja, yesterday.

DPP factional Chairman, Biodun Ogunbiyi, had told a news conference in Lagos on Friday that the party had been dissolved into the PDP to strengthen the country’s democracy.

But Yusuf said the Ogunbiyi faction was a splinter group that had been expelled from the DPP.

Contacted on telephone, Ogunbiyi insisted that the party had been dissolved into PDP, pointing out that the party’s secretariat was no longer in existence.
Ogunbiyi added that the merger was critical given the situation the party had found itself.

Merger with DPP, others on course —AC

Meanwhile, the Action Congress, AC, has reaffirmed that its merger plans with several parties, including the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, remained on course, despite claims by some expired members of the party (DPP) to have merged with the PDP.

In a statement in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said those who were misinforming the public for their selfish ends would soon realise that they had long been left behind in the scheme of things, adding that the DPP led by Lt.-Gen. Jeremiah Useni remains intact and that is the DPP that the AC is dealing with.

“We call on our teeming supporters not to be swayed by the outright falsehood and deliberate misinformation being carried out by one Biodun Ogunbiyi and his sponsors, that their own DPP has merged with the PDP. These people are political jobbers who are seeking relevance, at all cost,” the statement said

“There is only one DPP, the one recognised by INEC and led by Gen. Useni, and that is the one we are doing business with. Ogunbiyi and his renegade group were expelled from the DPP for anti_party activities in 2008.

“When they tried to inform INEC that they had suspended the Gen. Useni_led executives, the commission wrote them a letter, dated 22
January 2009, in which it said ‘there is no evidence to show that due process has been followed in line with your party constitution to arrive
at those decisions’. Need we say more?’’ AC said.

The party said those who are dealing with Ogunbiyi and his ilk, believing that they are dealing with the DPP, have been sold a dummy by the renegades, and will sooner than later know the truth, to their chagrin.

“We are further encouraged in our stand that the DPP has, through its spokesman Abubakar Yusuf, denied any merger with with the PDP, while reiterating the expulsion of the political jobbers. We have no reason to doubt that assertion!” it said