15th September, 2014
The PDP has urged organisers of political rallies in support of some individuals ahead of the 2015 general elections to desist from mentioning names of officials at such rallies.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Olisa Metuh, made this call in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja.
The statement quoted Metuh as saying “we recognise the inalienable right of citizens under the amended 1999 Constitution to freely associate and publicly express their support for persons of their choice.
“However, we wish to restate in the strongest possible terms that no official of the PDP at any level should for any reason, be involved in such events until after the primaries.
“In this regard, all support groups struggling for legitimacy, supremacy or recognition should henceforth desist from trying to actualise such by using names of officials of the PDP.”
According to him, this is the last warning to all such support groups.
He stated that the party would not hesitate to take strict measures against any further infraction on its integrity and that of its officials.
He added that the leadership of the PDP recognised party officials as unbiased umpires, with a sacred duty to observe the dictates of internal democracy.
“For this reason, all party officials are expected to remain neutral until the emergence of candidates through party primaries, in line with the provisions of the PDP constitution.”
It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan recently came on hard on one of such supports groups with the #BringBackPresidentGoodluckJonathan2015 sign.
The President asked the group behind the sign, which was becoming obvious in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and some major cities, to bring down all of the billboards bearing the sign.
The President said the sign was perceived to be a mockery of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
The #BringBackOurGirls campaign was born months ago to champion the release of the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from their hostel at Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno, by the Boko Haram insurgents.