By Folorunso Alagbede, Abuja
Ahead of the forthcoming 2027 general election, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Barrister Tanimu Kabiru Turaki (SAN) has concretely assured that the party will provide a level playing field for all members to choose its presidential candidate.
Turaki however added, quickly, that he knows those who will never emerge as candidates of the party.
He Turaki spoke on Tuesday in Abuja when the National Working Committee (NWC) members elected at the Ibadan National Convention and other stakeholders including members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) paid a courtesy call to former Vice President Arc. Namadi Sambo at his residence in Abuja at a meeting that lasted for about three hours.
Turaki recalled that PDP had already zoned its Presidential candidate to the Southern part of the country, stressing that former President Goodluck Jonathan and any other person from the south is free to contest adding that the party already knows those that will not emerge.
According to him, “We in PDP have taken a decision to zone our presidential ticket to the southern part of this country. For now, we do not know who may emerge as our candidate, even though we know those who will not be our candidate.
“So it’s open for every member of PDP that is living in southern Nigeria or of southern Nigeria descent.
“The process is going to be open, it’s going to be transparent, it’s going to be fair, it’s going to be equitable, and we are going to create level playground for everybody.
“So, if for whatever reason, anybody wants to contest, we want to assure you, Nigerians, that you will be the deciders of who becomes your candidate”, he said.
Turaki assured Nigerians that the new NWC is working very hard to return the party to its winning ways.
His words: “We will continue to tell Nigerians and indeed members of PDP out there that your party is the biggest and greatest party in Africa.
“Your party is on the move again. And very soon we shall come back to our winning days.
“And very soon we will position our party to win all elections that are going to be conducted in this country, beginning with the FCT Area Council elections, the Ekiti and Osun off-season elections. So I want to assure us that we are on course”, he said.
Turaki also commended the judgment of the Appeal Court that dismissed the case filed by Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, seeking to be recognized as the authentic National Secretary of the party.
He said, “Yes. It is a vindication for us in the PDP family. We’ve said times and times again that the decision of the Supreme Court is sacrosanct. That our courts have no business meddling into matters that are purely political party matters.
“And that is why when some judges, who are judges of particular concern, had recently given judgments, dabbling into issues they ordinarily should not dabbled into, and given judgments, as it were, that cannot be rationalized by whatever level of argument.
“The judgment of Justice Umar today (Tuesday) had vindicated us in PDP that, yes, we are the genuine leaders of PDP. “It has vindicated us that, yes, our convention was legitimately done, it had vindicated us that, indeed, people cannot just go in one corner and then begin to ascribe to themselves the leadership of a political party.
“This is not a market association, neither is it an association of shoe-shiners. This is a political party, and there must be discipline”, he stressed.
The former Minister of Special Duties disclosed that the party is working round the clock to discharge all the cases in the court before election activities commences fully.
He assured that the party cannot determine the process through which the court will dispense justice but added that all the records from the party will be transmitted timeously to ensure that the justice is dispensed on time.
According to him, “We have fulfilled all righteousness. We’ve done everything that we need to do. We’re waiting for date to be given for us, for our lawyers to go and argue our appeals”.
Turaki also revealed that the former Vice President has pledged to play a more active role in the party and to be available for consultations.
In the words of Turaki, “His Excellency (Namadi Dambo) had generously proffered advice and guidance to us on the way to move forward as far as propelling this party to once again become a veritable winning platform for Nigerians.
‘But the most important thing for us this evening is the assurance that His Excellency had given us that he is and will continue to remain a member of the PDP.
“His Excellency had assured us that very soon that he will become more active than he used to be. He assured us that should there be anything at any time that requires attention, that we should not hesitate to run to him and he will be up and doing. And he will be there for us” Turaki said.
The former Vice President however did not speak with the press as at the time of filling this report.
In attendance at the visit were members of the Turaki-led NWC, Chairman of BoT Adolphus Wabara, pioneer PDP National Secretary Prof. Jerry Gana, former Minister of Women Affairs Iyom Josephine Anenih and leader of the PDP caucus in the House of Representative Hon. Fred Agbedi, former governor of Plateau State Jonah Jang among other stakeholders.
ENDS
