Concerned members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the aegis of Concerned PDP Stakeholders Summit, led by former information minister, Professor Jerry Gana, on Thursday, May 12, 2016 met in Abuja and raised the alarm that ”hoodlums and gangsters” have taken over the party with the aim of finally destroying it.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the summit, its co-chairman, Professor Tunde Adeniran, declared that the party had been hijacked by hoodlums and gangsters thereby putting its future in danger, which was echoed by the guest speaker, Gana.
They said it was the reason the surviving founding fathers of the party and other concerned members convened the summit, with a view to reviving the party from the undertakers who were ready for its funeral ceremony this time around
“These undertakers are not known to our party, they are strangers, we should stand up and chase them away, stay back and revive our party ahead of the 2019 for it to take over the reins of power because Nigerians are anxiously waiting for us and we should not disappoint them this time around,”Gana declared
The group also rejected the national convention of the party slated for May 21 this year in Port-Harcourt and the new zoning formula adopted by the national executive committee of the party, as well as the proposed amendment of its constitution.
Rather it set a 21 -man steering committee and directed the national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff along with members of the National Working Committee, NWC, to vacate office on May 24 when their tenure would expire, and to hand over the affairs of the party to the committee while the Board of Trustees, BOT, would supervise activities that would re-position the party ahead of the 2019 general election
The communique signed by the trio of Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Professor Tunde Adeniran, and Chief Raymond Dokpesi read in part:
“The summit therefore resolved as follows: At the expiration of the tenure of the members of the National Working Committee on March 24, 2016 a national convention to elect the new executives ought to have taken place or a caretaker committee put in place to run the affairs of the party till such a convention was undertaken by the party.”
