Date: 2018-05-10

Party chieftains who rebelled against the Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) and joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) before the 2015 general elections, yesterday, issued a seven-day ultimatum to see President Muhammadu Buhari over issues threatening the party.

The aggrieved APC members led by a former acting National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, visited the national secretariat of the ruling party where they had discussions with Chief John Odigie-Oyegun over alleged marginalization.

In a letter signed by Baraje and Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola dated April 27, 2018 and copied President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, they said they needed to be heard so as to boost the party's chances during the 2019 general elections.

Daily Trust learnt that the letter might be a notice to the party leadership by the group to leave the APC in the event Buhari refused to listen to them. The president is in the United Kingdom.

Baraje and Oyinlola had in the letter said the efforts and sacrifice by new PDP members, including five sitting governors Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Abdul-Fatah Ahmed (Kwara), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) states; former governors Adamu Aliero (Kebbi), Danjuma Goje (Gombe) and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun) ; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; a sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal, many serving members of the National Assembly such as Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara and PDP elders were never publicly acknowledged by President Buhari.

The letter titled 'Request for Redressing of Grievances of the Former New PDP Block within the APC,' said they were desirous of strengthening the APC, especially now that party congresses had commenced ahead of national convention and another round of general elections.

"These efforts, contributions and sacrifice were made in spite of the fact that the presidential ticket was taken by the erstwhile Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) block of the party. It is a matter for grave concern that His Excellency, Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, has never publicly acknowledged our efforts in the face of clear evidence that the total number of votes scored by the APC in states where leaders and members of the then new PDP block held sway made the difference.

"In the constitution of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the nPDP block was generally side-lined as virtually no position was conceded to it. The only member of FEC that belonged to former New PDP block comes from a state (Rivers) that contributed virtually no vote to the APC in the 2015 presidential elections.

"There has been no significant patronage and appointments to positions in various government agencies such as chief executives and executive directors of government agencies and parastatals as members of our block of the party continue to helplessly watch as these positions are shared by the erstwhile CPC, ACN, ANPP, and even APGA blocks of the party and those who have no party at all," they said.

They said when members of the former nPDP block showed interest in running for the offices of President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, they were subjected to a vicious and relentless political opposition as if they were not legitimate members of the APC family.

They added that there was general lack of consultation, non-recognition and even persecution of former nPDP members and leaders by the party and government. Though the aggrieved APC members did not say they would leave the party, analysts believed what they said in the letter to the APC leadership clearly showed that they were only marking time.

Daily Trust reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently set up a contact committee chaired by former Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State to explore the possibility of wooing back some prominent PDP chieftains that defected to the APC in 2014.