Worried by the fractious nature of the party in most states, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is set to commence a national reconciliation tour of the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The reconciliation tour is scheduled to start at the end of the Ramadan period later this month. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in its meeting last month in Abuja had endorsed a proposal by the national chairman to implement his reconciliation programme.
Speaking in Abuja, the national chairman said that the membership of the tour party would be drawn from the Board of Trustees (BOT), the National Working Committee and the High Powered Advisory Committee (HPAC), which was inaugurated earlier this year. Each zone will be represented by nine members, comprising three from BOT, one from NWC and three from HPAC, and two others.
Investigations revealed that the party is being weighed down by pre- and post, convention crises in some states including Ogun where the party is factionalised. Either of the factions in the state are loyal to former president Olusegun Obasanjo and former governor Gbenga Daniel. In Edo State, there is also a festering crisis involving some members who are asking the Dan Orbih-led state exco to resign for having led the party to lose the governorship election in the state.
In Anambra State, an Abuja high court has sacked the Oguebigo-led state executive and ordered a fresh congress, while in Yobe State a high court has directed the party to use its internal machinery to reconcile itself.
The same is the problem in Taraba State where two serving senators are at war with the state governor, Mr. Danbaba Suntai, over the election of the members of the party’s state executive officers, claiming that there was no election.