3,000 Delegates For PDP Unity Convention

At least 3,000 delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are expected on Saturday at the Eagles Square in Abuja for the party’s non-elective national convention.

The delegates for the event – which is described by members as a unity gathering of the PDP family – are drawn from the six geo-political zones across Nigeria.

Others are expected at the convention are representatives from the United Nations and the Africa Union among other international bodies.

The Chairman of the Convention Committee and Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, believes the event will signal the party’s readiness to return to power at the centre and salvage Nigeria from its challenges.

The PDP National Caretaker Committee had on Friday extended the olive branch to its ousted national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, said this was because the policy of ‘no victor, no vanquished’ had been implemented by the committee.

Meanwhile, on August 10, the PDP said it had waded in the crisis rocking its members in the South-West region of the country.

The Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said efforts were ongoing to settle the dispute between two purported factions of the party in the region – Eddy Olafeso led faction and Makanjuola Ogundipe’s faction.

The Olafeso faction is politically headed by the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose; while the Ogundipe faction has Senator Buruji Kashimu as its political leader.

Some members in the region had expressed concern over which faction the national leadership of the party would recognise at the convention.

Senator Makarfi, however, assured party faithful that the issues would not hinder the success of the PDP convention.