Atiku calls for calm on PDP crisis

The former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday urged the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to unite for the sake of the party’s interest and the country.

Abubakar made the call in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, in Abuja.

The former Vice President was reacting to the current frictions in the PDP.

He said that the party could not afford to be divided at this critical point in time when Nigerians were desperately yearning for change.

Atiku said an opposition that is looked up to as an alternative could not afford to be fighting itself and lend its hands to the ruling party for its own destruction.

He urged the party’s faithful to understand that the price of having a fragmented PDP was too high to pay, “but above all, a betrayal to the memories of the founding fathers of the party.”

The ex-Vice President also dismissed insinuations that he was fueling the crisis in the party.

Atiku said that he was lately involved in reconciliation efforts within the party across the country and had backed reconciliation processes aimed at diffusing tensions in the party.

He implored the combatants to sheathe their swords and give the party’s reconciliation mechanisms a chance.

Atiku said: “The PDP is greater than our individual ambitions. We have to consolidate the party first before we talk about our ambitions.

“We have to be careful not to play into the hands of the ruling party.

“We can’t afford a one-party system in Nigeria that denies our people a viable alternative for true change in 2023.”

The former PDP presidential candidate warned that lack of unity and internal cohesion could help the All Progressives Congress (APC) more than the party.