Momodu, who made the appeal in a letter to PDP members, which SaharaReporters obtained on Monday, regretted that several months after their presidential primary, members are still busy fighting and calling themselves unprintable names, forgetting that they were once friends, with shared dreams and aspirations.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Dele Momodu has appealed to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to sheath his sword and allow the party’s machinery to fix the injustices he had pointed out in the party.
Momodu, who made the appeal in a letter to PDP members, which SaharaReporters obtained on Monday, regretted that several months after their presidential primary, members are still busy fighting and calling themselves unprintable names, forgetting that they were once friends, with shared dreams and aspirations.
He explained that the PDP as the oldest party in Nigeria has the requisite experience to tap into in order to prevent the country from descending into anarchy.
Wike and Atiku fell out after the party’s presidential primary election won by the latter. The crisis deepened after Atiku picked the Governor of Delta, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, shunning the advice from some party chieftains that he should pick Wike.
The former presidential candidate of the defunct National Conscience Party, enjoined elders of the party to refrain from making inflammatory statements that may further escalate the crisis, saying, "Truth is, we can, and should, defeat APC spectacularly in the next election and hopefully form a Government of National Unity in 2023."
He said, "My dear party members, good morning. I woke up thinking about the sad and unfortunate crisis rocking our party. I'm wondering if we've not been victims of mass hypnotism. Someone needs to wake us up from this state of somnambulism.
"Months after we concluded our Presidential primary, we are still busy fighting and calling ourselves unprintable names, thus forgetting that, once upon a time, we were friends, with shared dreams and aspirations. We all looked forward to how our party would dislodge the APC behemoth that deceived Nigerians with highfalutin promises but failed spectacularly on delivery.
"Agreed, costly mistakes were made in our party Presidential primary, some of them avoidable, but we cannot continue to dwell on it, lest we throw the baby away with the bathwater.
"Now that we've narrowed the principal actors to our National Chairman, Governor Nyesom Wike and our Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, I wish to appeal once again to them to urgently rise above this war of attrition for the sake of long-suffering Nigerians who need our attention desperately."
He added, "PDP is the oldest party in Nigeria, since 1999, with the requisite experience to tap into in order to reverse our perfidious descent into anarchy.
"I salute the courage of Governor Wike in boldly and vociferously letting the world know what went wrong and what should be done moving forward. He should please sheath his sword and allow party machinery fix the rest.
"I also appeal to our party elders to resist making inflammatory statements that may further escalate the crisis. Truth is, we can, and should, defeat APC spectacularly in the next election and hopefully form a Government of National Unity in 2023, as suggested by our candidate. Let's not destroy this opportunity with our own hands.
"Nigerians are waiting to see the practical presentations and demonstrations of our manifesto. Majority of the other candidates and members of their parties were at different times members of our party PDP. For every finger they point at us, four others will point back at them.
“Time has come for our party to retake the victory and regain the glory."