PDP sets up committee to woo opposition governors

The Peoples Democratic Party has taken pragmatic measures to counter the moves by the opposition parties to woo some aggrieved governors elected on its platform into their fold ahead of the 2015 general election.
Governor Godswil Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who doubles as the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, said a committee has been set up to make overtures to some of the governors elected on the platform of other parties.
Akpabio spoke to correspondents on Monday after a brief meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja.
According to Akpabio, the party’ s target is to have at least 30 governors after the 2015 election.
He said: “The only truly national party in Nigeria is the PDP.
“It is the PDP that can actually make overtures towards others and we PDP governors are poised to bring our colleagues from the other parties to join us.
“That is what we are trying to do now.
“So, there is no overture that anybody will make, PDP is too large and organized.
“So, we have set up a tactical committee to also reach out to the opposition (in quote) because we want to be more than what we are.
“We started with over 30 governors now we have been reduced to 23 and there is now need for us to come together.
“We should be over 30 in the next election and this seems to have rattled the opposition.
“I can tell you that even now the opposition is rattled.
“You can see the barrage of attacks on the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
“This is a sign that the opposition is rattled because there is really no need for the attack.
“For instance, you make a paltry donation of N1 million to a state with over 450 delegates for entertainment and they make it big, they set up panel on television and they discussed.
“If you translate the money, you realize that you are donating less than N2,000 per delegate.
“There is no function that the party leaders do not buy lunch or give money for transport.
“It is something that we are now leaving the main issue of development for trivial issues.
“I want people to challenge the PDP on developmental issues and not on trivial issues.”
The governor insisted the opposition parties are rattled already by insinuating that there was crisis within the ruling party.
Explaining why last Sunday’s grand finale of the PDP reconciliation in Abuja was poorly attended by the governors, the PDPGF chairman said the event was poorly publicized.
Akpabio said: “There is really no crisis in the PDP.
“The one year anniversary that was celebrated by the NWC at the International Conference Centre yesterday (Sunday) was not well publicized.
“Many governors were not aware of that ceremony.
“I got to know about the ceremony just a night before the event.
“I had a visit of the National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh and he asked me if I will be at the conference centre on sunday and I asked him for what and he said the grand finale of the zonal meeting of the national chairman and I said I wasn’t aware of it.
“I hosted the Super Eagles in my state on Saturday and I felt let me struggle to represent the governor of the PDP who definitely were not aware.
“I know that if there was no single governor there, the next thing Nigerians will say is that the governors boycotted.
“I think it was a slightly rushed affair.
“It was not well publicized.
“I don’t blame any state governor that was not there.
“I was even surprised that the governor of Kogi State managed to be there.
“Clearly speaking, we cannot blame any state governor.
“It wasn’t a boycott.”