Foremost Ijaw Leader and a foremost supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Edwin Clark, has accused some national leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party of being insincere in their attitude towards the second time ambition of the President.
He also accused them of following the President to his campaign rallies instead of going to their home states to also galvanise support for the President.
Clark stated this in Abuja on Saturday while playing host to the PDP Aspirants Forum who paid him a courtesy visit.
The visit was aimed at expressing their grievances over how the party treated them (PDP aspirants ) in the last primaries in various states.
Clark said he was particularly sad with the way the PDP governorship primary was conducted in some states, especially in Adamawa State.
He said, “Everybody was ready to hold the governorship primary in Yola. People were waiting in Yola for the primary and the PDP brought the primary to Abuja overnight, hired people from Nyanya and others.
“Whereas they held the congresses in Yola, they later resorted to hire people to attend the primary here in Abuja.
“There is injustice in the party. Some of the national leaders don’t want the party to succeed and they are disloyal to the President.
“I have asked them to go to their states to campaign, but they refused. They are following the President everywhere. Some of them want the party to fail.”
He begged the aggrieved aspirants not to leave the ruling party for the opposition, the All Progressives Congress, saying the party has nothing to offer Nigerians other than to enthrone a northern President.
Members of the group hinged their grievances on the grounds that the party did not hold primary to pick any of its candidates, saying that all its flag bearers were handpicked by godfathers.
The group, however, threatened to institute a court action to nullify the candidature of all the candidates of the party in the forthcoming general elections.
Clark however pleaded with the aspirants, stating that the party would not forget their labour and that they should work together to achieve success for the party in the forthcoming polls.
He added that when the party wins the election, all the efforts of the aspirants would be rewarded.
The group had also threatened to work against the interest of the party in the forth-coming general elections if their grievances were not addressed.
The aspirants said they were highly disappointed by the manner in which the party’s primary were handled across the country.
The aspirants, who came together under the leadership of Chief Richard Lamai in Abuja, had also threatened that the resources they expended on campaigning and wooing delegates for the botched primaries must be refunded to them before the commencement of the elections, otherwise they would work against the PDP success at the elections.
The forum comprised of aggrieved aspirants who lost out in the party’s primaries across the six geo-political zones of the country.
Speaking at the forum’s emergency meeting in Abuja, Lamai said, “We are collectively aware that reconciliation and reintegration had not been effective in our party. The leadership of the party has carried on as if nothing happened and without due regard to aspirants who invested resources and time in building our party.”
He added that the aggrieved aspirants did not lose out in the primaries due to their inability to mobilise and canvass for votes from delegates, but that the leadership of the party across the states had candidates already anointed for the PDP tickets.
Lamai, however, attributed the challenges being faced by the PDP across the country to the “lack of internal democracy and political deceit in the party by the leadership.”
Also speaking at the meeting, two aggrieved members from Kaduna and Rivers states noted that the monies spent on the procurement of nomination forms and mobilisation of delegates to the botched primaries must be refunded to them before the elections.
