Ekweremadu PDP post-election panel meets Jonathan

Members of the Post-Election Review Committee set up by the Peoples Democratic Party to assess its performance in the last general elections and proffer the way forward met behind closed doors with President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday.

The committee members were led to the meeting, which was held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, by their chairman and Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.

Ekweremadu told State House correspondents at the end of the parley that he and his members used the opportunity of the meeting to brief Jonathan of their work and seek his support.

He added that the President had assured them that he was committed to ensuring that the PDP returns to its lost glory.

He added that they had agreed that all internal bickering within the party should stop to allow them to move forward.

Ekweremadu said, “As you are aware, the PDP set up a committee to have an overview of our performance during 2015 election and possibly proffer a road map for the PDP to return to its past glory.

“This committee has since been inaugurated and we deemed it necessary to come back to the leader of the party to brief him on our appointment and to seek his support and cooperation.

“I would like to announce that Mr. President has given us his words that he will encourage and will support this process and that he is interested in the party returning to its past glory and that he is going to do everything to ensure that we remain intact and we also agreed that all bickering have to stop so that we have a position that will enable us to rebuild our party.”

Ekweremadu explained that the blame game among party chiefs was expected as the first reaction to the kind of situation the party found itself after the elections.

He however said the bickering had stopped as party chiefs had absorbed the shock and were now ready to build the PDP again.

Ekweremadu said, “When you have this kind of situation, the first reaction will be blame game. But I think we have been able to absorb that shock and right now I can assure you that all that bickering has stopped.

“We are now ready to rebuild our party and be able to present in a credible opposition for this country that will ensure us return to power in 2019.

“We are ready to hold the new government accountable and make sure that the promises they have made that we will be able to benchmark each of them appropriately so that it will not be that they have deceived Nigerians and got their votes.

“They are going to account for their statements, their promises. We will hold them accountable to all the promises.”