PDP crisis: Reps demand automatic return tickets

Members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party have, again, demanded for automatic return tickets to the House in 2015.
The House members made the demand at a meeting with the National Working Committee of the party on Tuesday, called to stem the tide of defection from the party.
The NWC was led to the meeting by the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.
Others who attended the meeting were some governors elected on the platform of the party, led by the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Godswill Akpabio.
According to the House members at the meeting, which started at 9pm within the premises of the National Assembly, the NWC had acceded to the demand when the former National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was in charge.
Briefing newsmen before the meeting went into closed doors session, the House Leader, Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande, recalled that the party had promised members automatic tickets.
Adeola-Akande said the new leadership should not renege on the promise.
Her words: “Members of this party in the House would want to be assured of automatic ticket in the forthcoming elections and the opportunity to nominate membership of various committees in their constituencies as the need arises.”
She said the meeting, the first of its kind, “signposts the beginning of the process of continuous dialogue.”
Also speaking, Akpabio, who was accompanied by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State (elected on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance) and the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko (elected on the platform of the Labour Party), said: “I came in with them to let you know you’re not alone.
“It was an unspoken and uncommon appearance.
“The outcome of this meeting will determine to a large extent the return or exit of some of you because your governors are here since you don’t relate much with your governors and get disconnected from state functions.
“But this meeting would straighten all that out.
“Whatever is decided here would become the Abuja accord.”
Mu’azu, also had this to say: “It’s a pity that things have gone the way they have gone.
“The disconnect between the party and the members of the House will be a thing of the past.
“If the party gave you a platform, you owe it a responsibility to remain in the party.”
Assuring the Representatives that their demands would be looked into, Mu’azu said further: “I can read the nobody language and I can hear what Mulikat (House Leader) is saying.”
Also present at the meeting were: Governors Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers State, Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Saidu Dankingari of Kebbi State and Theodore Orji of Abia State.
Also at the meeting were Governors Garba Umar of Taraba State, Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and the Deputy Governors of Kogi and Jigawa States.