One of the aspirants jostling for the exalted office of National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), Conrad Terhide Utaan said it has the capacity and competence to rescue the party from total collapse through a genuine reconciliation and fence mending mission among the members.
Utaan stated this at a press conference in Abuja while unveiling his agenda for the party.
He said there is a need to bring aggrieved members to a round table with the view to foster unity and reconciliation and move the party forward, reports Daily Independent.
According to him, “My firm conviction is that Peace, Reconciliation and Unity form the bedrock of the need of our great party at this material time, and I am most qualified to undertake the task to satisfy this need, being not encumbered by the ego which in most cases comes with advancement in age and high societal status. What I’m saying in essence is that there is no level I will consider too condescending to stoop to in the pursuit of Peace, reconciliation and unity in the PDP.
“I aspire to be given the mandate to serve PDP as National Chairman primarily to run a shuttle diplomacy errand to the doorstep of each and every leader of the party with a message of Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, convinced that I am possessing of the advantage to undertake such a task for the fact of my relative youth which arms me with fresh energy and innovative thinking for the job.
“My ambition represents a statement from the vibrant pool of new generation players in our great party who have gone through the apprenticeship scheme under its leaders and are now qualified and ready to serve at the top levels of party leadership and administration”.
Utaan while commenting on the removal of the former Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu said he has no hand in his ouster just as he said that he remained the most qualified candidate if the National Executive Committee (NEC) decides that someone from the North-Central should see out the tenure of the current NWC as National Chairman.
“I went to court to seek legal interpretation to the crisis which resulted following the suspension of Dr. Ayu from his membership of the party by his native Igyorov Ward Executives of the party. He has contended that the Ward Executives lacked the powers to suspend him for the reason that he was a member of the NEC of the party and only the NEC could suspend him from office. But there was the counter argument that the Ward Executives had suspended his membership of the party and not his position as National Chairman.
“I sought the intervention of the court to clear the confusion and it was the court which in its wisdom held that the Ward Executives had the constitutional powers to suspend Dr. Ayu’s membership for the reasons they gave. And that having lost his membership of the party, he could not validly hold the position of National Chairman. That was all I did, so it is erroneous to say that I contributed to the process of removing Dr. Ayu from office as National Chairman,” he stated.
