PDP crisis: Dickson, Mantu, NASS members, others endorse political solution

The National Reconciliation Committee (NRC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), headed by the Governor of Bayelsa state, Hon. Serials Dickson, has identified political solution as the best option for the resolution of the protracted crises in the party.
The Committee, which also has former deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, as Vice Chairman, said in a statement issued at the end of its meeting on Thursday in Abuja.
The NRC, which reviewed recent developments in the party, emphatically declared that a political solution remains the best option for the protracted crises in the party to be resolved.
The two factions within the party have been moving from one court to the other with a view to finding solution to the PDP crisis.
Just last month, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, ruled that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is the lawfully recognized national chairman of the party.
This, however, did not go down well with the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party, under the leadership of Senator Ahmed Makarfi, which has approached the Supreme Court to upturn the judgement of the appellate court.
However, while rising from its meeting in Abuja, which was attended by elected members of the party in national assembly as well as former leaders of the party, the NRC maintained that there was no better way of resolving the crisis other than political solution.
The committee, in the statement, said: “A political solution is the best option for the protracted crises in the party.
“Endorses the resolution of the meeting between the former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR and PDP State Governors in this regard without prejudice to the ongoing judicial processes.
“That as part of this process, it is imperative that an early convention within the second quarter of 2017 should be held in Abuja which therefore should be all inclusive and where new national officials of the party will be freely, fairly and transparently elected.
“In furtherance of this, the reconciliation committee shall embark on extensive consultations with all stakeholders with a view of building confidence and necessary consensus toward the Unity Convention”, it said.
The committee therefore appealed to all party leaders and members to exercise restraint and focus on the loyalty to and the overall interest of the party.