Date: 2018-08-04

Stakeholders in the Peoples Democracy Party ( PDP ), Kwara State say the gale of defections hitting the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has given the party the numerical strength to dislodge President Muhammadu Buhari from Aso Rock Villa in 2019.

The Kwara State Deputy Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Sanni Abubakar who led other major stakeholders of the party, including a former deputy governor and a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, stated this in Ilorin on Friday during a Press Conference at the Press Centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.

According to the stakeholders, which also included the party's Treasurer, Assistant Secretary, and State Women Leader, the party gladly "welcomes the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, the State Governor, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed and other returnees to the party".

"The defection has increased the numerical strength of the PDP across the country and positions it to dislodge the All Progressives Congress-led federal government", the group said.

"It is with great delight and enthusiasm that we welcome these honourable and distinguished members to our party. It is, indeed, a reunion of old and long time friends and associates who have jointly contributed in no small measures to the development of Nigeria; a day we in the Peoples Democratic Party have long anxiously waited for", the group said.

The stakeholders accused some of their members of "having nocturnal meetings in Abuja with a view to mortgaging our collective destiny on the alter of personal but selfish gains", saying that "such members are not only egocentric but driven by inferiority complex and pathological hatred and envy for Saraki".

The group believes that "if Saraki, as the Senate President and chairman of the National Assembly, can be treated with so much disdain and disrespect despite his contributions, along with others, to the success of the APC in 2015, one can imagine what is likely to befall folks without any political pedigree, like those crying wolfs where none existed".

The stakeholders called members of the party in the state to respect the right of every member and work in unison in the interest of the party and the country at large.

"We appeal to all members of the PDP to be receptive to the new members and prospective members and build a stronger, united and acceptable party at all levels".

Also speaking, a Former Deputy Governor of Kwara State, Chief Joel Ogundeji charged politicians in the country to eschew politics of bitterness.

Chief Ogundeji who noted that politics is a game of numbers said making Kwara state a better place under the tutelage of Peoples Democratic Party is paramount.