BAYELSA GUBER: WE WILL NOT HAND OVER OUR PARTY TO PDP RETURNEES WE DEFEATED IN 2015

...URGES SECONDUS TO BE WARY ÒF DANGEROUS EXTERNAL MANIPULATION

By Tony Okechukwu

The Peoples Democratic Party Youth Network has warned that it would resist any attempt to hand over the candidacy of the party to politicians who abandoned it for the All Progressive Congress and who were defeated in 2015.

The Secretary General of the Group, Mr. James Oputin, said in a statement in Yenagoa on Sunday that any move by the leadership of the PDP to hand over the party to politicians and aspirants  who turned their back on the party during critical moments would spell doom for it.

Oputin called on the PDP national leadership to thread with caution on the sensitive issue of electing a candidate for the gubernatorial contest in the state in order not to endanger its chances òf retaining political power.

He argued that the members of the PDP Youth Network who are spread across the state are alarmed by an emergent alliance of those who have been fighting the government since 2012 and APC returnees who they fought hard to defeat  during the 2015 elections.

Oputin said that it was indeed repugnant to social justice for some persons to make the sacrifice to nurture the party for the past seven years only to have group of people to attempt to wrest control of it for electoral contest.

He said that the PDPYN would mobilize its members in all the nooks and crannies òf Bayelsa to resist any attempt to yield the party to those whose previous actions have shown clearly that they don’t care about it.

He said further that those peddling the false narrative that the PDP would win the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State without the PDP Restoration Team which has waged all the battles for the parties victories, nurture it to a strong, cohesive platform, are not doing the party any good.

He stressed that there should be a difference in reward between those who selfishly see the PDP only as a platform to pursue their gubernatorial ambition and those who have associated with it through thick and thin to build it to an impregnable and cohesive political platform.

He warned that the PDP is an attraction for political contest today because of the sacrifices of those who have remained in it such as the Youth Network, the Women Alliance, and the leadership all under the Restoration Family.

He called on the National Chairman òf the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, to be wary of noxious external influence and APC returnees and their divisive antics as the party moved to pick a gubernatorial candidate for the next election.

He said that it would be regrettable for the national leadership òf the PDP to think that the party would win the Bayelsa gubernatorial election without the support of Governor Dickson and the Restoration Team.

He called on the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, “to stand up in defence òf what is right before it is too late.”

Oputin said, “The leadership òf the PDPYN has viewed with concern the surreptitious move by some forces to hand over our party to APC returnees who we defeated in 2015.

“We are calling the attention of the national leadership to the ungodly alliance of those who have been fighting the Restoration Team since 2012 and those who abandoned the party for the APC In 2015.

“We have built this party for the past seven years; we have nurtured and nourished it to the heavily formidable, cohesive and preferred platform that it has become over the past seven years in Bayelsa.

“These people are who cannot point to one sacrifice they have made to the PDP in the past seven years are peddling the false narrative that the PDP can win election without the Restoration Team. Where were they when we fought the most recent battle in the last general election?

“We are constrained to say that the PDPYN shall resist this attempt to pay evil for good. We and our leaders have worked to build the PDP to its present state and will not fold our hands to watch unstable politicians  take it over.

“The National leadership of the PDP would do well to ensure that the Bayelsa PDP goes into this crucial electoral battle as one solid, united and cohesive platform. The PDP does not need this costly gamble at this time.”