The Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Damagum, on Thursday, said the party was caught sleeping during the February 25 presidential poll, because it had believed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was honest about its promises to introduce technology to enhance the electoral process.
The PDP chair, who claimed the party was doing everything possible to show leadership, including carrying smaller parties along in the scheme of things, added that the PDP won the 2023 general election, but was manipulated out by the powers that be.
Damagum stated this in Abuja while playing host to a delegation from the Kukah Centre led by its Executive Director, Atta Barkindo.
With the PDP boss to receive the delegation were the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba; National Organizing Secretary, Umar Bature; and Acting National Secretary, Setonji Koshoedo.
Damagum, while addressing his guests, alluded to the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to leverage technology to make the 2023 presidential election the best the country has witnessed.
“It was a free and fair election that made PDP lose power in 2015 but since these people came into power, they have been making promises that never see the light of the day. Let’s take the recent election for instance.
“All the modifications and electoral transformation, technology-driven and whatever; we were very sure it was a genuine thing, without knowing they were selling a dummy to us. We relaxed and we were caught sleeping. We won an election that was manipulated.
“However, the party is mindful of following the legal process. That is why we still have relative peace in the country today because everybody knows what happened. We will continue to seek redress through the constitutional process,” he said.
Continuing, he said, “Our democracy is developing. Smaller parties are springing up and they had some of their members elected recently. During the internal election at the National Assembly, we were able to carry them along. You can see the Labour Party, the New Nigeria People’s Party, and so on.
“During the election, we were able to carry them along and conceded to them some deputy positions. If we wanted to take all the minority seats, we would have done so because there are more than them in number, but we conceded two seats to them each.”
On how members of the PDP in the parliament would amplify the voice of the party, the PDP boss predicted an imminent showdown, stressing that though as individuals, they had their personal interests, the party, he added, remained supreme.
His words: “We have told them clearly. You know when you are electing a leader, there are so many interests. They may have their personal interest and what have you, but while they may be doing this, the position of the party is supreme.
“They should be able to carry other smaller parties along. Very soon, you will start hearing noises from the National Assembly from the way they are going now.”
Earlier, Barkindo told the NWC that the team was at the party’s national secretariat to discuss ways of improving internal democracy, enhancing pluralism as well as ensuring equity in the nation’s political system.
Other members of the Kukah Centre on the delegation were Programme Manager, Esrom Ajanya; Communication and Research Director, Mackit Rendep; Stephen Klanzama, and political expert, Emeka Diru.
Chuks Okocha
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