‘PDP will disappear if democracy isn’t respected,’ Chairmanship candidate says

monjola sotubo

August 12, 2016 11:42 AM

Dokpesi, who’s campaigning for the Chairmanship of the PDP, also said that democracy should be allowed to reign in the selection process.

Raymond Dokpesi

He made the comments on Thursday, August 11, 2016, during a press briefing in Abuja.

“I want us to just hope and pray that the governors who spoke out very clearly said after the Ali Modu -Sheriff episode, they had learnt their lessons and they will allow the party to take or make its own decision,” Dokpesi said according to The Nation.

“And I verily believe them even when I have seen some departure from that. I have seen some departure from that and I am not naive to believe that I should take their words hook line and sinker as it will appear but I want to hope that Nigerians are watching.

“There is nobody that owns PDP, it belongs to everybody. The consequence of not allowing internal democracy to prevail in the PDP is the fact that the party will break, the party will disappear into oblivion. So, if the PDP does not reform now, it will not survive the current crisis and that aside, let me state very clearly that I do not belong to any faction.

“I am not even aware of any faction of the PDP. I know that there is a central PDP, I know that there were disagreements over the processes of selecting an acting chairman of the party and I am aware of the fact that prior to the main convention, a good majority of the party members believed that once the NEC had approved that the presidency should go to the north, a memorandum will be presented to the convention that the presidency should go to the north and that by PDP tradition, the chairmanship should go to the south and you cannot change this.

“It is part of impunity that a group of persons get up and say we want to change because I believe it is not their personal property. If you are able to market it across and members of the party agree and say yes, that is fine.

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“This issue is about communicating with every member of the party and respecting their views not a group of persons coming together and thinking that once they have decided, that should be final,” he added.

The PDO is currently embroiled in a leadership crisis due to the refusal of Ali Modu Sheriff to vacate the office of chairman.

Sheriff was removed during the party’s convention on May 21 but he insists that he is still the valid occupant of the position till 2018.

monjola sotubo