Anenih, PDM in war of words

The Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, Tony Anenih, on Sunday engaged the leadership of the newly registered Peoples Democratic Movement in war of words over the 2015 general elections.

Mr. Anenih issued a statement Sunday where he disowned the new party, saying, PDM remains just a "movement within the PDP." He said the registration of PDM "is just a political trickery which will not survive the test time".
However, the leadership of PDM also issued a statement on Sunday saying "the masquerade behind the anti – Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, the newly registered party, has finally been unveiled".

The statement, which was signed by Alaba Yusuf, the Media adviser to PDM's National Chairman, said Mr. Anenih's press statement is a positive advertisement for PDM and what it stands for.

"We are not going to waste our time exchanging words with those who want to live in the past, and continue to impoverish the ordinary Nigerian.
"Let the PDP BoT Chairman resolve the crises tearing his party and the country apart; before dabbling into the affairs of another party over which he has no control," it said.

It also said Mr. Anenih's description of PDM's registration as "a political trickery" is "nothing but an insult to the electoral laws and the credibility of INEC."

"The beauty of democracy lives on the principles of freedom of speech, association and the right to exist politically," it added.

Mr. Anenih had, in his statement, alleged that he had been inundated by calls from members of the movement because of his leading role in its formation and nurturing.

He stated that the PDM as earlier envisioned remains an integral part of the PDP, whose members are working for the unity and success of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan.

"After in-depth investigations and extensive consultations with a wide spectrum of the membership and leadership of the PDM, which is just like a pressure group within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, I consider it moral to use this medium to clarify that the PDM, which some persons, purporting to be interim leaders, secretly and mischievously promoted and succeeded in registering with INEC to operate as a political party, is not our PDM that worked with other political associations to form the PDP in 1998.
"For the avoidance of doubt, the PDM, which we collectively envisioned under the leadership of the late General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, remains an integral part of the PDP, whose Board of Trustees, I currently chair by the grace of God and the consensus of founding fathers and leaders of our great party.
"I hereby wish to urge those who look up to me for guidance in this circumstance to remain steadfast with me in the task of building a much more united and formidable PDP and to discountenance the registration and treat it as a political trickery which will not survive the test of time.

"Members of the Peoples Democratic Movement, which is working for the unity and success of the PDP and the Federal Government under the able leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, should not panic.
"They should see it as an attempt to undercut our PDM, which was never intended to be and should not be a registered political party within and against the PDP," he said.