Over 5,000 delegates from across the Nigeria have arrived Abuja, the nation’s capital to attend the non-elective convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP holding at the Eagles Square on Saturday.
Dayo Adeyeye, the spokesperson of the main opposition party in Nigeria, addressed a press conference on Friday, August 11, 2017, said that delegates from the 6 geo-political zones in the country had arrived the nation’s capital for the event.
Prince Adeyeye described the convention as a unity gathering and confirmed the presence of international monitors in Abuja for the event.
“It will be a carnival-like convention, the like of which we have never seen before. We have delegates from the Africa Union, the United Nations and the rest of the international community,” he told journalists.
This would be the first major gathering of the leading opposition party in Nigeria after the Supreme Court judgement which brought an end to the leadership tussle between Ali Modu Sheriff, a former chairperson of the party and Ahmed Makarfi, the current national leader of the PDP.
Adeyeye also made reference to the the Supreme Court victory saying that the convention would be a celebration for the party.
“This unity convention is going to be a celebration for the PDP. I can tell you that if the decision of the Supreme Court had gone the other way, there would have been no PDP today,” he said.
He also took the occasion to call on Nigerians to be vigilant and avoid falling victim to the anti-PDP propaganda of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
While enumerating some of the giant strides of the PDP in the course of its 16 years in power, Adeyeye said the onus is now on Nigerians to decide which of the political parties mean well for them and the country.
“Nigerians remember with nostalgia life under the PDP and they are yearning for it to come back,” the PDP chieftain said.
”I challenge anybody to deny that the achievements of this great party are comparable to any other in Nigeria.
“We bequeathed the largest economy in Africa to the APC but they squandered it within six months to one year.”
He also described the two years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration as “the worst era in the history of Nigeria”.
