Prof. Wale Oladipo, PDP National Secretary, said the Adamawa Acting Governor, Alhaji Umar Fintiri, would not recontest in 2015 if he emerged as winner in the Oct. 11 governorship by-election.
Alhaji Umar Fintiri
He told newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja that the agreement was reached with the party leadership and aspirants who contested the Sept. 6 Adamawa primaries.
“Whoever wins now will not insist to contest in 2015; I can assure of that because that is our agreement.’’
He added that the agreement was not documented but “it was solid, robust, voluntary and concrete with the consent of all party stakeholders in Adamawa”.
Oladipo added that as secretary of the committee that broker the agreement, measures had been put in place to ensure that whoever won the bye-election would not contest in 2015.
“And in any case, the primaries for 2015 will take place in about a month time,’’ he said.
He said that eight aspirants voluntarily withdrew from the race on the ground that they would prefer to wait and contest the 2015 election.
He, however, debunked insinuations that the party leadership was using the agreement to deny the state acting governor from contesting in 2015.
“The governor himself was the person that said `if I win, I will not contest’, so nobody is taking anything from him.
“It will be morally wrong for who ever wins now to contest the 2015 election.
“And you should know that in PDP, we are a family; there is no domineering dictator; here we all discussed and reached an agreement.
“ And we move out as a team and that is what we are going to do in Adamawa,’’ he said.
Oladipo said that the party`s appeal panel would look at the petitions of some aspirants on the conduct of the Adamawa primaries, to address them.
“They have a right to file petitions, but the appeal panel would look at it dispassionately and address it as the need arises,’’ he said.
He, however, expressed optimism that the PDP would do the needful to ensure that it won the Oct. 11 Adamawa by-election.
The PDP scribe added that the party believed that for democracy to strive, it needed to play the game according to the rules.
He said that if the country`s constitution allowed a sitting president two terms in office, President Goodluck Jonathan should not be an exception.
He assured supporters that the PDP would continue to leave to the expectation of Nigerians and do their biddings always as long as it remained in power.
He therefore called for the cooperation of all to ensure the re-election of President Jonathan in 2015.
Oladipo had earlier urged the PDP students wing to continue rooting for the party across the country, especially Adamawa, which he said was critical to the party.
The students, led by Mr Wada Success, were at the party headquarters to seek support and to pledge their loyalty to the PDP-led Federal Government.
They also called for the re-election of President Jonathan in 2015, to enable him to continue his transformation agenda.
The youth expressed the need for PDP leadership to strengthen the office of its National Youth Leader, to give more voice to the youth.
This, according to them, is critical because youths made up to over 60 per cent vote cast in every election (NAN)