The Plateau State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has  appealed to its members who defected during its protracted crisis to return in the interest of the party.

Its chairman and former Minister of Sports, Hon Damishi Sango, made the appeal in his office Jos.

The party, which ruled Plateau for 16 years before losing to the APC in 2015, has lost some of its key members to the APC during the prolonged litigations between Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Makarfi. Prominent among them are former Governor  Joshua Dariye, a member of the House of Representative from Jos East/Jos South Constituency Hon. Edward Pwajok, and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly Hon. Yusufu Gagdi.

Sango said: “First of all, we are not blaming some of our members who defected in the course of our conflict. But now that the conflict that propelled their action has been resolved at the level of Supreme Court, such members should endeavor to come back to the party.

“Just as ôur National Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said after the court verdict, no victor, no vanquish, it is only a victory to democracy. We are therefore appealing to some of our members who left the party during the internal conflict to come back because PDP is our party, it is not my party or for any individual, we still consider them as our members and we are looking forward to them coming back soon.

“Nigerians need PDP now because the party that offered itself as alternative party to PDP has failed Nigerians, so Nigerians now understand the difference, what APC has failed to achieve in two years, I wonder if they can make it up in the next one year of their tenure. So PDP remains the only hope for our nascent democracy.

Sango said the PDP has realised its mistakes of 2015 and learnt from them, adding that PDP remained the only dependable party in 2019.

He added: “We have assured all members who defected to another party in the course of our conflict that they should have the confident to return to their original party because we are not going to victimize anyone as a result of that.

“The party will allow a level playing ground for all members, we have vowed that there will be no imposition of candidate in any election, every member, no mater your status, will be allowed to exercise his or her democratic rights, all we are after is to come out with the best candidates that will fly the flag of the party in subsequent elections in the state.

“We are reaching out to the former members that left during the conflict, there is going to be a reconciliation committee at the state level, the committee shall reach out to such members, everyone is important to the party, PDP remains the people’s party.”

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Plateau PDP appeals to former members to return to the party