The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said about 2,800 delegates are expected to vote at the national convention that would produce national officers of the party.
Spokesperson of the party, Dayo Adeyeye, stated this while briefing newsmen Thursday at the end of the 77th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in Abuja.
The Convention is billed for December 9, 2017.
According to the party’s constitution, NEC is the second highest decision making organ of the party; the first being the National Convention.
The delegates, Adeyeye explained, include both elected and statutory.
He assured that the opposition party would organise a free, fair and credible national convention, while warning aspirants to moderate their languages during campaigns.
He also disclosed that the issue of micro-zoning was not discussed at the meeting.
He said: “Aspirants were admonished to be civil to each other to avoid foul language, to avoid unnecessary criticism of each other and not to disparage the integrity of the leadership of the party because we have been working assiduously to provide a level-playing field for everybody.
“We are going to organise the most credible party election in the history of Nigeria. And we are happy that what is going on right now has never happened in the history of this country before, to see people who are aspiring to party offices, campaigning as if they want to become presidents, which is also indicative of the fact that Nigerians still believe in PDP. They trust the PDP and they are hoping that the PDP can provide an alternative platform in 2019”.
Earlier at the opening session of the meeting, Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, disclosed that the delegates list for the Convention had already been shown to national chairmanship aspirants and state chairmen of the party to ensure transparency.
On his part, the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Walid Jibril, warned members to desist from creating false impressions about party decisions.
Jibril lamented that some BoT members had created impression that the Board screened out some aspirants particularly in the South West.
According to him, while the party recognises the right of every member to support any aspirant, all actions and statements of such members should not be attributed to the BoT.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who described the meeting as crucial, urged the party leadership to ensure that the convention is transparent and fair, adding that that is the only thing that would make people accept the outcome.
He also tasked the chairman of the convention planning committee, which NEC had authorised the caretaker committee to announce at a later date, to ensure hitch free convention.
Ekweremadu also warned against bad loser syndrome, adding that people must avoid being used by enemies of the party. “Whoever wants to disrupt the party may end up being the ultimate victim,” he said.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
