PDP may lose more people - Makarfi

- The immediate past chairman of PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, has said that the party may lose more people

- He said he was worried the party recently lost some founding members

- He, however, said that the gale of defection from the party was not as serious as it was reported in the media

The immediate past chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has said that the party may lose more people to other parties before 2019 elections.

The Daily Trust reports that the former governor of Kaduna state, however said that the gale of defection from the party was not as serious as it was reported in the media.

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Legit.ng gathered that Makarfi said: "It is sad for the party to lose anybody. But first of all, it is not as serious as reported because I noticed that some of the people alleged to have moved with them made statements that they were not part of that and the party is aware they have been calling people for meetings though not indicating to people exactly the purpose of the meeting.

"You know, politicians even for inquisitiveness can attend a meeting and you can easily use record of attendance to impugn what may have not happened. In any contest there must be a winner and a loser. I just want them to be reasonable and rational.

"The Governor Dickson committee has been reaching out to them and we commend him for what he is doing. The governors have been reaching out to aggrieved people; our governors are doing very well, our National Assembly members and many of us are doing very well in reaching out to aggrieved people. All hands are on deck.

"The overwhelming majority is in tune with that except a few who may not heed to that now. But, we hope down the line, they will see reason. As a matter of fact, I can’t speak for the PDP officially, but I know that it has been the principle of the party to work together with the SDP and other opposition parties to bring positive change in this country.

"So the separation of a few of them I hope is very temporal. Down the line, reconciliation, accommodation and mobilization may happen one way or the other. The NWC is doing its best to bring people in, the national chairman, individually has been doing a lot of work in order to bring harmony within the party.

"So with the multiplicity of efforts, there are no worries at all. Let’s see what happens but we expect a lot more people to come into the PDP between now and April. We expect a lot of political movements, we may lose some, I am not ruling that out, but I believe we will gain hundred times more than what we may lose. As elections approach, you will see movements from one side to another and this time will not be an exception but I believe it will be towards PDP.

The allegation is that Prof. Jerry Gana, Prof Tunde Adeniran and others left because Governor Wike has hijacked the party and we also learnt that there was a meeting of PDP governors in Gombe recently, and the essence of the meeting was reportedly to stem the excessive influence of Wike in the PDP…

He debunked the insinuation that Prof Jerry Gana and others defected to SDP because Governor Wike has hijacked the party.

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He said: "The meeting of the governors had nothing to do with that. About a month ago, all of them, including Governor Wike, met in Asaba where they resolved to be meeting every month; that the governors of the various states controlled by the PDP will be hosting the meeting on rotational basis. So it is a monthly meeting introduced by the PDP Governors’ Forum. It was not an issue of the governors themselves. Wait and see another governor hosting the next meeting.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the crisis rocking the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to abate as three former ministers led an exodus of top members of the party after efforts to heal the wounds of the last national convention of the party hit the rocks.

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Source: Legit.ng