Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, said on Sunday that the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), which got registered as a political party penultimate week, could not become a political party.
Anenih, who spoke in Abuja, said that the PDM was not established to transform into a political party.
Anenih’s statement was coming on the heels of a similar declaration by the zonal leaders and elders of the PDM, who met in Abuja on Friday.
Anenih, who is a leader of the movement, said in a statement the original leaders of the movement did not intend that it should transform into a political party.
In the statement entitled, ‘Our PDM is not a political party,’ Anenih said that the movement had worked with other political associations to form the PDP in 1998.
He stated that the mischievous registration of the PDM as a political party amounted to “trickery,” which, he said, would not endure the test of time.
He said: “Reports about the registration of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have inundated the polit, and because of my leading role in the formation and nurturing of the movement, concerned members of the movement have contacted me to confirm if it was our PDM that has witnessed the transformation.
“After indepth investigations and extensive consultations with a wide spectrum of the membership and leadership of the PDM, which is just like a pressure group within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I consider it moral to use this medium to clarify that the PDM, which some persons, purporting to be interim leaders, secretly and mischievously promoted and succeeded in registering with INEC to operate as a political party, is not our PDM that worked with other political associations to form the PDP in 1998.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the PDM, which we collectively envisioned under the leadership of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, remains an integral part of the PDP, whose Board of Trustees I currently chair by the grace of God and the consensus of founding fathers and leaders of our great party.
“I hereby wish to urge those who look up to me for guidance in this circumstance to remain steadfast with me in the task of building a much more united and formidable PDP and to discountenance the registration and treat it as a political trickery which will not survive the test of time.”
Meanwhile, PDM has warned Chief Anenih to desist from interfering in issues concerning the PDM.
According to the Interim National chairman of the party, Alhaji Bashir Ibrahim, the PDP chieftain should concentrate on fixing the problem of his party rather than worry about the PDM.
A statement signed by his Media Advisor, Mr Alaba Yusuf, in Abuja, on Sunday, accused Anenih of being behind the negative campaign against the newly registered party.
According to the statement, “let Anenih and his party fix PDP and Nigeria’s myriad problems. The masquerade behind the anti-PDM propaganda has been unveiled.
“Chief Anenih’s statement is a positive advertisement for PDM and what it stands for. There’s no turning back the hand of time. PDM is an idea whose time has come.
“We are not going to waste our time exchanging words with those who want to live in the past. Let the chief resolve the crisis tearing his party apart before delving into the affairs of another party over which he has no control,” it said.
Also, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s media aide, Garba Shehu, said Atiku did not at any point in time told any member of the PDM to register as a political party. Shehu said that that PDM was applying for registration as political party is not new, tracing the group’s registration back to the days of the late General Musa Yar’Adua (retd).
He added that Atiku and Chief Anenih, who were members of the group, had the choice of remaining as members of the PDP, neither of them reserved any right to take away from a fellow citizen his right of freedom of association as accorded by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said: “Turaki’s position is only different to that of Chief Anenih to the extent that he believes in the right of freedom of association, which is guaranteed by the constitution of Nigeria. PDM, even when Shehu (Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua) lived never operated as a regimented organisation like the police or the army. Don’t also forget the fact that this is not the first time that the PDM had sought registration.”
Tribune
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