PDP chairmanship aspirants sign peace accord

Aspirants to the office of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have signed a peace accord with Chief Bode George absent at the ceremony presided over by the National Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, on Tuesday.


Others present are Professor Tunde Adeniran, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Prince Uche Secondus, Chief Gbenga Daniel and Mr Jimi Agbaje.

Professor Taoheed Adedoja was absent at the event but came to the secretariat later to endorse the document.

Makarfi, however, explained that George had previously indicated that he could not meet up with Tuesday’s ceremony because of a prior engagement.

The party boss said the peace accord was the initiative of the aspirants who he said had agreed to act with decorum at the forthcoming national convention of the party.

He said the aspirants had decided to support and work with any of the aspirants who emerged at the end of the election.

Makarfi dismissed insinuation that state governors under the party might be influencing the outcome of the election, saying that the state chief executives were surprised at the progress made by the aspirants themselves towards ensuring a credible election.

The party boss observed that the chairmanship peace initiative was novel to PDP, a party he observed was intent on sticking to democratic principles.

He noted that aspirants were free to talk to themselves about the best way to ensure a credible convention.

Speaking ostensibly on the need for consensus before heading into the convention, Makarfi said it was important to agree on candidates for positions in order to shorten the duration of the exercise.

He said this was particularly important for lower cadre offices in order not to subject delegates to punitive conditions.

But he assured that even if there was a sole candidate for any position, election would still be conducted for it.

“You have agreed to act with decorum and to work with whoever is elected.  You developed it (agreement) yourself, we didn’t suggest anything. PDP has never done this before not to talk of others that are not democratic. We submit ourselves to democratic tenets,” Makarfi declared.

Speaking on behalf of the aspirants, Senator Ladoja assured that the convention would be smooth, noting that all of them were desirous of making PDP great, because, according to him, Nigerians were looking for an alternative government.