Senator Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday warned any member, who engages in anti-party activity ahead of the 2023 general election.
Ayu, who threatened to sanction any member who indulged in anti-party activity, urged members to address whatever problem bedeviling the party in their chapters.
He also urged members that united and formidable force will be the best option to go into any election, including the forthcoming presidential election and other national elections in 2023.
Speaking during the inauguration of the reconciliation committee on Ekiti State governorship election in Abuja, the former President of the Senate said, “The mood of the party is that of a united house. The mood of the party is that of a party that will fight together as one united force and hopefully, we should be able to recapture as many states as possible, as many members of the National Assembly, both the two houses as possible, or state Houses of Assembly.
“We’re not going into any election to lose. We are going into every single election with the determination to win and I think that should be the mood of every member of the PDP family. It is not important to us in the leadership of the party whether you like a particular candidate or not.
“Once the party decides on the candidates, it is the responsibility of every member of the PDP family to fight for that candidate because you’re not just fighting for that candidate you are fighting for the PDP. So you have a responsibility to support him. Anybody that does otherwise will be considered as working against the PDP, so it will be regarded as anti-party.
“The mood of the PDP today is that anybody who works against the PDP will not just walk away because we don’t want members of our party fighting against members of the party. We lost election because the leaders in various states and the followership were divided, with PDP winning or losing against PDP.
“That trend has to stop. We are very certain that the reconciliation process which we are going to carry out in virtually every state will enable us to unify the party at the ward level, at the local government level and at the state levels because we believe that as a family, as a party today, that no single individual can go out there and win an election, even if you are a governor.
“The governors must work with their colleagues, critical stakeholders, right from the ward. Every other party leader in every state must be prepared to work as a team player, because party politics is like football, it is not tennis, it is a team game. And it’s only when you work as a team that you are assured of victory.”
Ayu added that “what we have started today, with Ekiti State, is actually a process, it is not directed specifically at only Ekiti but is directed at our party as a whole. We think there is a need for dialogue with critical stakeholders and the party is going to do just that, so that by the time we are going into the elections, whatever election we’re going into, we want to go into such election as the united force, a force that is capable of fighting and winning elections.”
