2019: PDP Inaugurates 53-Member Rebrand Committee

PDPThe Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Friday inaugurated a 53-member committee to rebrand and refocus the party for the 2019 general elections.

The committee, which is to be chaired by founder of DAAR Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi and co-chaired by Hon. Awal Tukur, is charged with the responsibility of organising stakeholders’ conference with participants from the six geopolitical zones.

The conference was earlier put on hold to allow the party leadership to receive the report of the Senator Ike Ekweremadu-led post-election review committee.

Speaking at the inauguration of the committee at the party’s Abuja secretariat yesterday, the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, said the move was aimed at checkmating the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justifying the need for the conference, Secondus said events in the last six months of the APC administration have raised fears that the gains of democracy achieved by the PDP were seriously under threat.

“This national conference is meant to fashion out strategy that would help PDP sustain democratic ideals while in opposition, hence the choice of the conference theme, ‘PDP and the sustenance of democratic ideals in Nigeria’”.

The PDP chair explained that the idea behind the conference was derived from the party’s constitution, noting that the objective was to ensure reconciliation and mobilization.

He added that it is also meant to educate critical stakeholders of the party on the reform programmes being pursued by the party leadership.

Secondus reiterated the determination of the PDP to put forward its best hands in an effort to ensure the sustenance of the gains of democracy, which he said were recorded in 16 years of the party’s reign at the centre.

“The conference can be used to re-engineer the ideals, core values and principles of the PDP as bequeathed to us by our founding fathers”, he said.

Other members of the committee include Senator Ben Obi, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, Senator Ken Nnamani, Senator Ahmed Markrafi, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, Senators Joy Emordi, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, among others.