Supreme Court judgment: PDP will return to power in 2019 – Gov. Wike; It’s no victor, no vanquished – Ekweremadu …Calls for immediate reconciliation
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will in 2019 return to power at the Federal level because the All Progressives Congress, APC, has unleashed untold hardship on Nigerians.
Addressing thousands of Rivers PDP supporters at the Port Harcourt International Airport on Wednesday after the Supreme Court Judgment that validated the National Caretaker Committee of PDP, Governor Wike said that the APC’s poor governance has led to mass insecurity across the country and the collapse of the standard of living.
The Supreme Court had, Wednesday, put an end to the lingering leadership crisis rocking the PDP when in a landmark judgment it held that Senator Ahmed Markafi remains the authentic National Chairman of PDP and ordered Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to vacate the National Secretariat of the party.
Gov. Wike berated the Federal Government and APC for plotting to destroy the opposition. He said without opposition, there is no democracy.
“We have tested them for two years and Nigerians are suffering. Nigerians are dying and there is insecurity everywhere. It has never been like this. This opposition will lead us to power in 2019.
“Now, we have a government and we have a party that says there will be no opposition. If there is no opposition, there will be no democracy.”
He called on Nigerians to pray for the nation’s judiciary as it is facing its most perilous times as it is under threat and intimidation.
“We owe them the duty to pray for them. What the judiciary is going through, no other arm of government has ever gone through it. Without judiciary, Nigeria is gone, without judiciary, there is no democracy,” he said.
The governor said that Nigerians from all walks of life are celebrating the Supreme Court Judgment and thanking God that PDP is not dead.
“All Nigerians are thanking God that PDP is not dead. The PDP is the only hope for the people,” he said.
He urged PDP supporters to stand firm and continue to work for the growth of the party.
“God has come out to rescue Rivers State and PDP. Nobody can intimidate us,” the governor said.
But in his own reaction, the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said that the Supreme Court judgment ushers in a new dawn of peace, reconciliation and recovery for the party.
He said it was a no victor and no vanquished situation for individual party members, but rather a collective victory for the entire party faithful and the nation’s democracy.
He said: “I am happy that the Supreme Court has brought this protracted leadership tussle to an end today. There is no victor and there is no vanquished, but a collective victory for our party and the nation’s democracy. No democracy can prosper in the absence of a virile opposition or under the extreme hardship Nigerians have faced over the past two years. Citizens deserve a viable alternative.
“The ruling party has indeed profited from the prolonged power contest, not just in terms of defections, but also in the unchallenged degeneration of democratic values, rule of law, electoral practice, and the economy because the PDP has been too distracted to keep them on their toes.
“But, it is heartwarming that calm is returning after the storm. I salute millions of our party faithful and Nigerians who stood firm to weather the storm for their courage and loyalty, and sincerely appeal to those who left for one reason or the other to return to our big political family.
“Importantly, I call on our party leadership and elders to immediately initiate an all-inclusive peace, reconciliation, and rebuilding process to reunite everybody under the big umbrella and reinvigorate the biggest party in Africa to bounce back to the rescue of the suffering masses of Nigeria come 2019”.
