pdp moves to recocile members in anambra

Enugu — DISTURBED by the abysmal performance of the party in last Saturday's governorship election in Anambra State, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, South East zone has set up a reconciliation committee made up of top stakeholders to reposition the party ahead of the 2011 general elections.

The party had also congratulated Governor Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, on his victory in the Anambra governorship election, just as it blamed the loss of its candidate, Professor Chukwuma Soludo on what it described as the internal wrangling and divisions within the state chapter of the party.
In a seven-point communique at the end of an emergency Zonal Working Committee meeting held in Enugu, by the Zonal Secretary, Mr. Vincent Okpaleke, the party said that the reconciliation committee which would soon be inaugurated as part of efforts to rescue the party in Anambra State, adding that it had already declared a state of emergency in the state chapter of the party for the purpose of repositioning it.

According to the party, the committee is to be made up of former Governors, former Ministers, former state party chairmen, former members of the National Assembly, former Speakers of the House of Assembly, all from the state who are still members of the party to help reconcile, sanitize, restructure and democratize the party in the state.
Other members of the committee are former national zonal officers of the party from the state who are still members of the party.
Expressing satisfaction with what it described as the methodical and issue-based campaign by Prof. Soludo in the governorship election, the party commended him for his "gallantry and statemanly conduct" during and after the election.

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It, however, expressed sadness over the loss of PDP, noting that the major crisis that engulfed the party shortly after its botched primaries and subsequent selection of Soludo as the candidate by the national leadership of the party, caused the party the election.
"This is evident from the fact that the aggregate of the votes cast for most of the candidates who were members of the PDP in the weeks leading to the election would have given the party a resounding victory. In order to address the issues that led to the loss, we advise that democratic practices should be entrenched from the grassroots to the top echelon of the party," the party said.
The party urged all members of the National Assembly as well as members of the Federal Executive Council from the zone to do everything necessary to ensure strict compliance with the provisions of the constitution as it concerns the long absence of the president.