The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu, has begged the defected G-5 governors to return to their former party, promising to set up a high-powered reconciliation committee to meet the governors.

The governors who defected to the APC are Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

Mua'zu stated this yesterday when Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido paid him a courtesy visit at the national headquarters of the PDP in Abuja.

Lamido was accompanied by the three senators from his state as well as Ibrahim Kazaure, the north-west chairman of the party who was pencilled in for expulsion by the disciplinary committee led by Umaru Dikko.

Mu'azu also pleaded with Lamido to appeal to his defected colleagues to return to the party, just as he appealed to Lamido to be part of the committee which, he said, would be constituted soon.

The PDP chairman said, "I have had a good encouragement from a very grateful and thankful PDP member. PDP made most of the people and we expect that, whatever be the case, we should remain within and let us slug it out and let us correct the needful for us to move forward.

"With my colleague and I in the PDP leadership, I want to assure you that we would look at everything that had passed that had led to our party reducing in number and in size, and we will address this.

"Whatever injustice that had been done, we are going to correct it. We will be bold enough to say sorry to those that had been offended."

He added that, with due consultation with the party's major stakeholders, a high-level reconciliation committee would visit all aggrieved members of the party and say sorry to them with a view to bringing them back to the party's fold.

"I am sure that body will like to leave his home -- not even a fool will leave a home such as the PDP.

"The PDP is the best home and best family to be in. Those of them that have gone, I wish to appeal to you to please come back home.

"I appeal to you to have a sense of patriotism for your party. The party has offered you a lot; reflect, think and come back; our doors are open."

According to Mua'zu, the PDP under his leadership will continue to strengthen and deepen internal democracy to ensure that anyone with the party's ticket wins election.

He lambasted the NWC members who served under Tukur for not being courageous enough to speak up against the defection of the governors. He said, "Be courageous when you see wrong things, don't feel owned by anybody."

Lamenting the way the governors were treated, Lamido said: "My brothers who defected are in pains because they were compelled to leave the party they so much love.

"I don't know whether to congratulate you (Mu'azu) but if they (NWC) were up and doing we would not have these problems. It is bad that when our governors were leaving the party you kept saying 'don't worry'.

"When our leader Obasanjo said he was withdrawing, you people said you were not worried. You alone cannot get the party the victory that we won two years ago. I am worried because our goal is to keep winning. Please get them back. But it is not easy because their egos were bruised; they felt insulted, embarrassed and rejected by their own party."

Lamido, who said he has nothing against the former chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, lamented that the former chairman held a national assignment which was supposed to unite Nigerians.

The governor regretted that Nigeria which is naturally the leader of the black race by population has been relegated to the status of smaller countries like Ghana and Sierra Leone because, in spite of the enormous endowment in the country, leaders have failed to do things right.

He warned against lack of transparency within the party ahead of the 2015 elections.

20 PDP legislators defect to APC in Kwara

Twenty out of 22 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members of the Kwara State House of Assembly yesterday in Ilorin formally defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

A suspended member of the House, Hon. Iliasu AbdulRahman, opted to remain in the troubled PDP while the other PDP legislator, Hon. Fatai Salman, was yet to make his position public.

The remaining two members of the 24-man House of Assembly - Hassan Oyeleke and Olayonu - were members of the APC before the nPDP merged with APC.

Speaking one after the other on the floor of the House yesterday, the former PDP lawmakers cited factionalization and division in their former party, PDP, as reasons for defection.

In unison, the defecting lawmakers said they had decided to pitch their tents with the only party (APC) "that can guarantee peace of not only Kwara State but Nigeria as a whole".

In his remarks, the speaker of the House, Barr. Razak Atunwa, said the PDP had suffered fragmentation that led to the emergence of two factions, adding that the factionalization in the party was well documented in public records.

The speaker clarified that the "forced" resignation of former PDP national chairman Alhaji BamangaTukur and appointment of a new chairman had nothing to do with their stand and would not change their positions.

He said Tukur's resignation was immaterial because he had done irreparable damage to the image of the party before he opted out.

He also said that all efforts aimed at resolving the differences between the factions were systematically frustrated, adding that "this has left us with no other option than to join the APC".

"It is clear that from August 31, 2013, when a number of delegates from several states walked out of the Eagles Square convention to hold a parallel PDP convention at the Yar' Adua Centre, factions were established. All media reports since then are awash with reference to either the Baraje faction (commonly referred to as 'new PDP' or 'nPDP') or the Bamanga Tukur faction.

"I and the rest of the members who have today formally changed party to the APC belonged to the 'new PDP' faction. This is permitted by the proviso to Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"The decision to leave the PDP was not made without thorough evaluation and extensive consultations. However, it was abundantly clear that PDP was fast becoming a sinking ship inhabited by self-serving egomaniacs.

"The final straw that broke the camel's back was irregularity which occurred at the purported convention at Eagles Square where lists of delegates from certain states were doctored and some governors and their genuine delegates were prevented from participating. Consequently, a parallel convention was held at the Yar' Adua Centre. In my view, the latter was the legitimate convention.

Stability returning in PDP - Shema

Meanwhile, Katsina State governor Ibrahim Shema has said that stability is coming back to the PDP.

Speaking during the formal opening of a meeting of the PDP state chairmen's forum, yesterday, Shema said the party was gradually putting its problems behind.

"Stability is coming back to the PDP; the initial hiccups are normal. Managing success is the most difficult thing," Shema said.