Emmanuel: We’ll Remain in PDP Regardless of S’Court Ruling

Olawale Olaleye

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, yesterday said regardless of whomever the Supreme Court favours between Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Makarfi in the lingering Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairmanship tussle, no genuine PDP member would leave the party.

Emmanuel, who spoke in Lagos at an interaction with select journalists, said the matter at the Supreme Court was not about whether or not the party should continue to exist but purely a leadership matter, which he described as internal, adding that such would not make the PDP go into extinction.

Personally, he said it was unthinkable that someone like him, having benefitted immensely from the PDP, would quit because there was an internal situation that could still be resolved, no matter how long it took the leaders to get round it.

The PDP governor, who described the party as the only one that was truly connected to the grassroots and recognised across Africa, maintained that no genuine member of the party would leave on account of the emergence of an individual as party chairman.

“Regardless of who wins, we will stay to build the PDP. The name PDP remains. I’m PDP; PDP is in my blood. Anyhow the judgment goes, I remain in PDP. Nobody is going anywhere. All those going are looking for negotiation and we will negotiate with anyone.

“I want people to see my children tomorrow and say, you are family of PDP. Only greedy people are jumping ship. The Supreme Court judgment won’t change the name of our party. The party will stand on the mission and vision it was founded. We will build the PDP,” he said.

He, therefore, dismissed swirling insinuations that he had the intention of leaving the PDP, noting that the recent defection of Senator Nelson Effiong of the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) had no connection with him as being rumoured in some quarters.