2023: PDP’ll be back to Aso Rock, Secondus insists

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has berated the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for going after their governors, insisting that the party was going to be in Aso Rock after the 2023 general elections.

He also stated that the party was going after the masses and with them, they would win 2023 presidential election.

Recall that the governor of Ebonyi state Dave Umahi left the party last year, governor of Cross River state, Ben Ayade also decamped to APC not long ago and last week, PDP Senator, Peter Nwaoboshi followed the same route.

PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus at press briefing, Tuesday, in Abuja confirmed that the National Working Committee (NWC) received a letter from the governor of Zamfara state, Bello Muhammad Matawalle notifying them of his intention to leave the PDP for APC.

Secondus said, “from all indications, Matawalle has lost memory of how he became the governor of Zamfara state and he needed to be reminded that no law allows him to cross over to any other party with the statutory mandate given to PDP through the ballot box.

“Let me also emphasise that APC governors and government of APC are overbearing on the system and moving to poach our governors and this to them is regarded as an achievement. I have never seen where you have economic crises, insecurity crises, then the ruling party goes, poaching governors and 18 governors as published on social media will be moving, leaving their states to Zamfara, to celebrate the killings of innocent citizens in Zamfara state, the hunger in Zamfara state. This is a shame and it is laughable, he added.

According to him, “they are going after our governors but we are going after the masses of this country. The governors have one vote but we are after the people, the masses, the people who are suffering under this government.

“The masses are solidly behind us, the masses are for the PDP and we stand here to state clearly that we shall form this new government coming in 2023 because of the masses and not because of the governors, he said.

Secondus continued, “a combined reading of Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution as the pronouncements of the Supreme Court in Faleke v. INEC (2016) is clear in holding that it is the political party that stands for election, that votes scored in election belong to the political party and that the candidate nominated to contest at an election by his party, acts only as the agent of his party.

“The PDP also cautions members of the National Assembly as well as members of the Zamfara State House of Assembly, not to allow themselves to be pushed into losing their seats as the provisions of the constitution is very clear in barring lawmakers from cross carpeting, except in a situation of a division in the political party upon which platform they were elected.

“There is no division in the PDP to warrant to the defection of any of our lawmakers”.