ABUJA, JANUARY 6, 2017 – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Nigeria Police to open its national secretariat without further delay.
It alleged that the eight-month closure of the secretariat since June 2016 on the desperation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to muzzle opposition.
A statement issued by the spokesman of the PDP national caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye, also urged the judiciary to ensure a timely dispensation of justice on the case between the party’s faction which now pends in the appeal court.
It also commended all members of staff of the national secretariat for their peaceful protest last Tuesday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
The protest, which was carried out under the auspices of the PDP Staff Welfare Forum had demanded for the re-opening of the national secretariat and speedy delivery of judgment pending before the appellate court.
According to Adeyeye, “It is our firm belief that keeping the PDP national secretariat under lock since June 2016 till now was orchestrated by the ruling party to silence our party from providing viable opposition,” the party alleged.
He further said: “In the same vein, we pray the appeal court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State to deliver the reserve judgment on the party’s leadership issues pending before it to allow the PDP concentrate on its rebuilding process and provide alternative governance in the country.
“We also urge the National Judicial Council (NJC) to urgently do the needful in respect of the petition submitted against the Special Appeal Panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. The current petition like the two previous ones, was another delay tactics he devised with his collaborators against justice to the PDP and its membership nationwide,” he said.
The party has also condemned the report credited to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, allegedly calling for the proscription of the PDP in Nigeria.
The Acting National Publicity Secretary of the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s leadership faction, Mr. Bernard Mikko, said Shettima’s call for the proscription of the PDP in the country was not only unwarranted in a country with an enviable antecedent of multi-party democracy, it was also indicative of grand plans by the ruling APC to annihilate the opposition.
Mikko said any suggestion for PDP’s proscription was not only an apparent campaign for one party system, but also an invitation to dictatorship in Nigeria.
