After the emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) at the national headquarters in Abuja on Friday, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has insisted on Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as the venue for its National Convention.
The convention which will produce PDP’s presidential candidate for the 2019 elections is scheduled for October 5-6, 2018. The party had earlier announced Port Harcourt as the venue for the convention, but the choice of the venue was protested by some members of the party with claims that Governor Nyesom Wike is supporting one of the presidential aspirants.
After the 82nd NEC meeting, the party’s spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, confirmed that the committee came to a unanimous decision that the convention will hold in Port Harcourt. He assured the presidential aspirants of a transparent process at the National Convention. He said the party has promised that the outcome of the Cational convention will be ‘free, fair, clean clear and acceptable to majority of Nigerians’ and all their aspirants.
Ologbodiyan noted that the aspirants have collectively assured the party that their fears over the Port Harcourt convention has been allayed by the party.
The PDP spokesman said the NEC has resolved that they will be committing all the presidential aspirants to a bond on the outcome of the convention. HE explained that all the aspirants will sign an agreement with the party in order to ensure that the outcome of the national convention will be accepted by them.
Meanwhile, former Vice President and a presidential aspirant of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has denied claims that he is uncomfortable with the choice of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as venue for the party’s National Convention.
Atiku spoke after the party’s 83rd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Friday.
“It is not true because PH (Rivers) is my second home.
“I don’t need accommodation in PH, I don’t need security so it is not true. I am comfortable,” Atiku said.
Some aspirants had complained that the convention could be hijacked by the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike.
But the party’s hierarchy had insisted the convention would go on at the venue, saying the choice was a “unanimous decision.”