National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Dr. Iyorchia Ayu said there was no victor, no vanquished, in last weekend’s national convention of the party. Also, the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said no PDP member should be left out in the determination to wrestle power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) next year. Ayu and Atiku spoke on Wednesday at the presentation of certificate of return to the party’s presidential candidate. The PDP National Chairman, who made the presentation, said PDP was the winner of the presidential primary, and called on members of the party to unite to ensure victory at the main election.
“As we marched forward, we need all of you because each one of you had a supporter and all of you plus all your supporters, we want you all to fuse together into one happy political family. It is this family that will face the battle ahead. We have only started a journey. We shall end this journey sometime next year.
“You elected us to give you more governors, you elected us to take control of the two houses or the National Assembly. You elected us to win all the Houses of Assembly across the states and we will continue to do just that by working with you, by calling on many of you to come and help us execute these objectives because we can’t do it alone,” Ayu demanded.
He described the party’s candidate as “tested and trusted,” adding that he would lead PDP to reunite the country. Ayu assured that Atiku would “rebuild the economy. He will lead us to get rid of bandits and terrorists. He will reinforce the armed forces. He will give us respect in the international community. “Today, we are a pariah state but in the next 12 months, the whole world will begin to respect Nigeria all over again.”
Atiku on his part, said his victory at the convention was a victory for every member of the party “and for the vast majority of Nigerians suffering under the misrule of the APC. It was a collective effort, and I’m very grateful for everybody’s contributions.” The former vice president said the primary election was “within a family to decide how to put our best foot forward. The main contest is the one to win the presidency of our country for our party. “It will require the entire PDP family and other supporters and sympathisers. We must pull everyone together. Nobody should be excluded.”
