The state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Comrade Hassan Salau, has called on all members of the party to unite in order to move the party forward.
Salau, who spoke at a forum with journalists, said a reconciliation committee was being put in place by the party to resolve the crisis within the party.
“We are setting up a reconciliation committee this week to bring us together again as one family. It is normal to have disagreements in a family but it is abnormal not to resolve it. We are going to resolve all the disagreements by the special grace of God. PDP is one and will remain so for a very long time,” he said.
Meanwhile, as part of the reconciliation of aggrieved members of the party over his emergence as the governorship candidate, Wada has urged them to put aside their differences in order to forge a common front to achieve victory at the poll.
He spoke at the weekend after he was confirmed as the candidate alongside his running mate, Yomi, who is the first son of late elder statesman, Chief S. B. Awoniyi.
“I give thanks to the Almighty God who made it possible for me to be elected as the party’s candidate. This is not the time to fight to destroy our dear party, PDP. This is a time for reconciliation. There is no victor, no vanquished. Power is given by the Almighty God to whom He wishes at every point in time. I am therefore appealing to all my co-contestants to join hands with me and my deputy in order for us to triumph in the December 3, 2011 election,” he said.
According to Wada, it would serve no purpose for members of the same party to continue throwing mud at each other at a time all that was needed was genuine reconciliation.
“Of what use is it if we continue to defame and destroy ourselves in the media. I am using this opportunity to assure everybody that we will do our best to ensure an all-inclusive government that would accommodate everybody’s interests. This is a family affair. We must learn to put aside our differences in the greater interest of our party and people,” he said.
Captain Wada announced his preparedness to promptly meet with all aggrieved members to assuage their frayed nerves.
At the primary election last month, which was boycotted by other aspirants, Wada, believed to be supported by the incumbent governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, polled a total of 547 votes to defeat his close challenger, Abdulrazaq Isa Kutepa, who garnered 296 votes.
While seven candidates were cleared for the poll, four boycotted, citing irregularities in the election of delegates in the days leading to the election.
One of those who boycotted and winner of the January 9 PDP primary in the state, Alhaji Jibrin Isah (“Echocho”), has refused to recognise Wada’s emergence, and insisted that he remained the “authentic, valid and or lawfully nominated” governorship candidate of the party for the election.
Another contestant, Adinoyi Ojo-Onukaba, in a protest letter to the acting national chairman of PDP, called for the outright cancellation of the primary, saying it did not meet the requirements of the law.
