PDP’ll be buried if I resign – Mu’azu

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, and the party’s National Working Committee on Sunday dared members threatening to factionalise the party.

Muazu, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Tony Amadi, in an interview with The PUNCH, said that he would not resign despite the threat of some members to form a faction of the party.

The national chairman said that the PDP would be buried if he succumbed to calls that he should resign.

Sunday PUNCH had reported that there were moves by some aggrieved members to form a faction of the party.

But Mu’azu and the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said those making the threat should go ahead and carry it out.

But in a swift reaction, the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, said, “The PDP cannot break under any circumstance. Secondly, Mu’azu as chairman or not, cannot and will not break the PDP. Mu’azu is not a force enough to break PDP.”

Fayose said that Mu’azu did not have the clout to break the PDP, adding that if he (Mu’azu) ceased to be the chairman, the party would not die.

“How can a man who cannot win his ward, local government and state say the PDP will be buried if he resigns?” he asked.

The Ekiti State governor added that even if he (Fayose) left the PDP, the party would continue to exist.

He insisted that Mu’azu could not restructure the PDP, which he said needed restructuring.

But Mu’azu insisted that he would not resign.

Reacting to the threat by some members to form a PDP faction should he remain in office, Mu’azu said, “Let them go and form their parallel party and let us see where they are going to get their votes from.

“The only reason Mu’azu doesn’t want to resign is because if he does, those who want the PDP buried will succeed.”

The national chairman said he was not the problem of the PDP, adding that what should be uppermost in the minds of genuine party leaders should be how to rebuild it.

He said that he had remained committed to the cause of the PDP, whose member he had been since its formation in 1999.

He lashed out at Fayose and other chieftains of the party calling for his resignation.

Mu’azu asked, “Why are these people trying to create problems for themselves and the outgoing President? The President has said let us sheathe our swords; that is why we have not said anything for the past one week and we obeyed the President. He is our leader; why are they doing this?”

He wondered why some individuals were bent on heating up the polity with their conduct and utterances.

“I thought that we have finished elections, we have got a President-elect and we are going to hand over to the President-elect. Why are they taking us back? Please, let them cool down, Mu’azu is not the problem.”

Also, Metuh described the call for the sacking of the National Working Committee members of the party as a mere distraction.

He said in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday that those calling for the dissolution of the NWC lacked the power to take decision for the party and, as such, they did not deserve a response from him.