DPP is more disposed to merging with PDP than APC –National Chairman
Saturday, February 22, 2014
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*Commends
Ogbaburhon, others defection to PDP
*As
Delta APC opts for Urhobo Guber candidacy for 2015
By
Brisibe Perez
Amidst
rumours of a purported defection of former Democratic Peoples Party (DPP)
gubernatorial candidate, Chief Great Ogboru and some of his loyalist to the
Labour Party (LP), the DPP National Chairman and chieftain of the Arewa
Consultative Forum, General Jeremiah Useni (Rtd) in an interview with the media
recently, disclosed that, DPP is more disposed towards merging with the PDP
than with the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to Useni, “We as a party, the DPP, said we
would not join APC because we had problem with APC before; well, not APC as it
is today. DPP, ANPP and ACN were discussing merger. Atiku was representing ACN,
Buhari was representing CPC, Bafarawa and I were representing DPP. We thought
the discussion was going on smoothly. We were even trying to woo other parties
to come in. Suddenly, Atiku left and said he was going back to PDP. At the
meeting, Buhari said he had got his party approved, that he was going to
organise his own party. Tinubu now took over the leadership of ACN.
“At the time, a controversy arose. An idea was
canvassed that we (DPP) were to join those parties. But I said no, that was not
the mandate from our party. They asked us to go and discuss merger, not
joining. So, let’s go back to the party for a fresh mandate. The party said,
no, that if the merger discussion had broken down, we were free to discuss with
any other party or we should stand on our own, so we stood on our own. Bafarawa
who supported the idea of joining, went and joined ACN. We didn’t know he was
looking for a presidential ticket, which we would have given him, anyway.
“When he went there, they didn’t give him. They gave
it to Nuhu Ribadu. He got annoyed and went to ANPP, the party we left to form
DPP. Then, when this new realignment started and we were faced with the option
of being part of APC, we had the same old players. When they started the merger
talks, they didn’t invite us. If they had invited us, we wouldn’t have gone,
but they didn’t invite us, so we had an excuse. They didn’t invite us and we
felt they were looking for parties with Governors, and we had no Governor.
“Later, they approached us, after they had gone far.
When we met, some of us were divided whether we should join them or not; but
the majority said no, we should either remain on our own or join another party.
Then we said, what about PDP? We were not fighting with PDP. We were not
fighting with Labour Party. We said we were not going to APC because it was
made of people we were in talks with and they pulled out. It became very
difficult for some of us to go back there. So, we said we were not going to
APC.
We preferred PDP. We resolved we were not moving
from opposition to opposition. We were not going to Labour because it was in
opposition. We were not going to APGA; APGA was already divided into two, half
in APC and half on their own or somewhere. So, that’s why, even when one of our
members from Delta State, in House of Reps too, joined PDP, we had no objection,
but commended them because we are already discussing with PDP. We’ve not
finalised, but we are discussing. So, when he joined them, we said we’re
discussing to move there, anyway, so that’s in order.
Speaking on the essence of power shift in the
country today, he said, “There are many interpretations to power shift and
every political party has its own power shift, but what is happening is that
people take PDP arrangement as the arrangement for the country, which is wrong.
PDP arrangement is different from whatever other parties arrange.
“What people are doing now is just looking at
Yar’adua, and saying power should come to the North. What some of us are saying
is, if late President Yar’adua was alive, he would have been completing his
second term by now, but he died and this man took over part of it. People are
telling me now that there is a position that says you should do five or six
years. He took over somebody’s own, and this is what people are not looking at,
all they are saying right now is power should go to the North, power should go
to the North and the people of South are saying it is their time. The
constitution guarantees eight years of four years each and if the people say he
should go for his next four years, he should go.
“President Jonathan should continue, because if he
finishes this one, he hasn’t done his eight years, he took over somebody’s part
who unfortunately died and nobody prayed that Yar’adua should die, we all
regretted it, but God is supreme and no one can challenge God. Why should
people now say at the end of this tenure, he has completed his own? To me, it
is not fair,” he added.
Meanwhile, with the countdown to the general
election, information made available to Urhobo Times have revealed that, the
State chapter of the APC is considering on fielding an Urhobo candidacy from
Delta Central Senatorial district to fly the party flag at the State
Governorship election viz-a-viz postulations on the PDP fielding a candidate
from Delta North Senatorial district as a fallout of a supposed “zoning”
arrangement in the party.
A source close to a chieftain of the party who is
interested in contesting the governorship position of the party on the platform
of the APC disclosed that, the options available to the party is basically
between Dr. Otive Igbuzor and Olorogun O’tega Emerhor who is the party’s flag
bearer in the 2013 Delta Central Senatorial by-election.
Though regarded as undemocratic, the State Governor,
Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan while fielding questions from newsmen during a media chat
with newsmen, as regards zoning in Delta South Senatorial district where he
hails from, disclosed that, there is an unwritten agreement amongst the tribes
in the district on zoning representation at the Senate, adding that based on
that agreement, the next Senator from the district, would emerge from Itsekiri
ethnicity.
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