Governor Okowa of Delta State

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday in Abuja named Delta Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, as Chairman of Saturday’s non-election convention of the party.

The committee was immediately inaugurated by the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the party, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi.

Also inaugurated were Disciplinary Committee and Reconciliation Committee, which Makarfi said, were standing committees.

He announced Gov. Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe and Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers as co-chairmen of the reconciliation committee, and charged them to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party, especially those that had left.

“The term of reference for the committee is to bring back to the fold, aggrieved members of the party, especially the G34 members to come back to PDP,” Makarfi said.

He said that the reconciliation should be limited to pre-2015 general elections.

He added that the committee could in the course of its assignment, woo new people to the party.

Makarfi said that the functions of the Disciplinary Committee, to be headed by Chief Tom Ikimi, were already stipulated in the party’s Constitution.

He said that the activities of the Ikimi’s committee should extend to those who took the party’s matters to court without exploring internal mechanisms for arbitration.

In his response, Okowa pledged that his committee would give party a worthy non-election convention on Saturday.

“I believe that the convention, though not elective, will be the first occasion to showcase PDP after the Supreme Court judgment.

“We are going to organise a convention that will be peaceful and successful,” Okowa said.

On his part, Ikimi said that the disciplinary committee would work closely with reconciliation committee to ensure that defected members of PDP returned.

He urged members to be disciplined to avoid future litigations.

“Once there is discipline, there will be no need to go to court,” Ikimi said.

He advised that in re-building the party, returning members should be welcomed back with opened minds.

(NAN)