National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has said that the five PDP governors who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) will return to the party.
Tukur made this known when a delegation of the party’s stakeholder in Sokoto visited the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja on Monday.
The chairman, who cut short the NWC emergency meeting to receive the delegation, added that the party would not miss the defecting governors.
“No fear, no shaking, people can defect. It is their right but soon they will find out that it is that cold place that they were when they were brought into PDP.
“Many had left in the past and today, they are back in the party,’’ Tukur said.
He said the party would not miss the governors and those who may want to defect with them, adding that they would be the one to miss the PDP.
Tukur said the defecting governors were wrong in their timing, stressing that they would regret their actions before long.
The chairman assured President Goodluck Jonathan of the support of the party members in Sokoto in 2015.
He expressed satisfaction at the visit of the delegates, adding that their presence at the party national headquarters was an indication that PDP was well and fine in the state.
Alhaji Arzika Tambuwal, who spoke on behalf of the delegation, said they were at the party headquarters to pledge their solidarity and loyalty to the Tukur-led NWC of the party.
He said the visit was also to express their support for Jonathan’s administration and its transformation agenda.
The delegation, according to him, comprises 17 elders of the party and 300 party chieftains from the 23 local government areas of the state.
He said the delegation decided to visit the party headquarters after a meeting in Sokoto.
Tambuwal assured the party leadership that PDP in Sokoto was doing fine in spite of the defection of the state governor to the APC with four other governors.
He said while in PDP, Governor Aliyu Wamakko had victimised party stakeholders and looked upon the party headquarters with disdain.
He further added that the governor`s recent defection to the APC was, therefore, not surprising, adding that; “his decamping is a good riddance’’.
Tambuwal said the party chapter in Sokoto did not react to the governor’s anti-party activities before now because it realised that the party headquarters treated governors with kid-gloves.
He, therefore, urged the party NWC not to treat governors or any other persons with kid gloves if it must sustain a strong, dynamic and result-oriented party.
Tambuwal, however, added that the party stakeholders had started reorganising and repositioning the Sokoto chapter of party for future challenges.
He said that the stakeholder was determined to ensure that the party succeeded in the state.
Tambuwal called on the party leadership to immediately constitute a caretaker committee to organise congress for the election of new party executives at all levels in the state.
