21st March, 2012
As a fallout of Ward and state congresses in Rivers State,southsouth Nigeria, some members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,PDP,are secretly complaining that they are being marginalised by the party and are contemplating dumping the party.
Governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2011 general election in Rivers State, Dr. Abiye Sekibo has disclosed that many members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were willing to decamped to the party.
Sekibo, who stated this Wednesday in Port Harcourt while speaking during an interactive meeting of the ACN, said the affected PDP members were afraid to leave the ruling party, even though they were suffering.
According to him, “Some of my friends who are still in the PDP are willing to join the ACN. Each time they come to attend a meeting in my house, they complain bitterly about what they are passing through in the PDP. In fact, they are suffering there but cannot leave due to fear.”
He expressed regret that a party that can punish its members for having different opinions on how the party should be run in the state.
“How can you describe a party where it is only one man that decides who becomes what in the party and in the state?”
The former Minister of Transport expressed regret that there was no good governance at the local government level, saying that events unfolding from the various local government councils in the state were indications that democracy is yet to be installed at the grassroots.
The former minister called on members of the ACN to embark on one-on-one sensitisation, especially in the rural areas of the state in order to sell the laudable vision of ACN to the people.
Sekibo stated that the ACN boasts of more men and women of integrity than any other political party in the state, and called on members to make the party a political fighting machine that will carry the banner of the interest of the people of the state.
“The road ahead of us is long and very difficult but I have a firm belief that at the end of it, what God has proposed as the true fate of Rivers State will emerge. We will build a Rivers State that does not count on political party or ethnicity,” he said.
Elder Asuku Asuku, chairman of the ACN in the state, had earlier praised members of the party for their strong belief and steadfastness despite various challenges facing them.
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt