By Myke Uzendu
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tanimu Turaki (SAN) has assured Nigerians that the party will provide a level playing ground for members to choose its Presidential candidate in 2027, but added that he knows those that will not emerge as candidates.
Turaki gave the assurances on Tuesday in Abuja when the National Working Committee (NWC) members elected at the Ibadan National Convention and other stakeholders, including members of the Board of Trustees (BoT), paid a courtesy call on the former Vice-President, Arc. Namadi Sambo, at his residence in Abuja.
He said that the party has already zoned its Presidential candidate to the South and highlighted that former President Goodluck Jonathan or any other person from the south are free to contest, adding that the party already knows those that will not emerge victorious.
According to him, “we in PDP have taken a decision to zone our presidential ticket to the southern part of this country.
“For now, we do not know who may emerge as our candidate, even though we know those who will not be our candidate.
“So it’s open for every member of PDP that is living in southern Nigeria or of southern Nigeria descent.
“The process is going to be open, it’s going to be transparent, it’s going to be fair, it’s going to be equitable, and we are going to create level playground for everybody.”
He further assured Nigerians that the new NWC is working hard to return the party to its winning ways.
“Your party is on the move again. And very soon we shall come back to our winning days. And very soon we will position our party to win all elections that are going to be conducted in this country, beginning with the FCT Area Council lections, the Ekiti and Osun off-season elections,” he said.
Turaki commended the judgment of the Appeal Court that dismissed the case filed by Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, seeking to be recognized as the authentic National Secretary of the party.
He said, “It is a vindication for us in the PDP family. We’ve said time and time again that the decision of the Supreme Court is sacrosanct. That our courts have no business meddling into matters that are purely political party matters.
“And that is why when some judges, who are judges of particular concern, have recently given judgments, dabbling into issues they ordinarily should not dabble into, and given judgments, as it were, that cannot be rationalized by whatever level of argument.
“The judgment of Justice Umar today had vindicated us in PDP that, yes, we are the genuine leaders of PDP.
“It has vindicated us that, yes, our convention was legitimately done, it had vindicated us that, indeed, people cannot just go in one corner and then begin to ascribe to themselves the leadership of a political party.
“This is not a market association, neither is it an association of shoe-shiners. This is a political party, and there must be discipline”.
The former Minister of Special Duties also said that the party is working round the clock to discharge all the cases in the court before election activities commences fully.
He assured that the party cannot determine the process through which the court will dispense justice but added that all the records from the party will be transmitted timeously to ensure that the justice is dispensed on time.
