Stakeholders Say No To PDP’s Proposed Change Of Name

Daughter of Late PDP Chairman And Lawmaker Insist That PDP Is A Brand Name In Nigeria.

Hon Beni Lar, daughter of the first National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), late Chief Solomon Lar, has cautioned leaders of her party not to give in to the suggestions by groups of persons within the party to change the name of the party ahead of the forthcoming general elections in 2019, describing PDP as a brand name in Nigeria.

Naija News recalls that there had been a rumour that some members of the All Progressive Congress who were considering defection to the PDP had called for the party’s change of name as a condition for their rejoining it.

In an interview with newsmen, the federal lawmaker representing Langtang North /South of Plateau at the House of Representatives who is also the House Committee Chairman on Science and Technology, said what led to the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 general elections was because the leaders of the party at both national and some states of the federations abandoned the vision and democratic principles her late father and other founding fathers bequeathed to the party at its inception prior to the 1999 general elections.

According to Lar, the name Peoples Democratic Party came into being after her late father and other founding fathers took so many things into consideration and arrived at this name that has become a brand name in Nigeria, saying PDP as a party produced leadership for this country for 16 years before it lost power to APC due to acts of impunity that became the other of the day before the 2015 general elections.

Hon Lar, assured all PDP stakeholders that going by what is happening in the ruling party APC that was hurriedly put together for the sake of wrestling power out of the grip of PDP in 2015, things were already falling apart in APC with the ongoing gale of defection from the party into PDP that is already on its way to recapture power in 2019.

Lar called on the PDP Leaders at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja and at the states levels to ensure all the party aspirants that could afford to pay charging fees to obtain aspiration forms to be given a level playing field at the party primaries so that the delegates will decide who wins the party tickets at the Presidential, governorship, Senate and House of Representatives primaries and the state Assemblies party primaries across the country.

Lar noted that once the party primaries are free, fair and all parties to the contest are satisfied with the outcome, the party leadership should rest assured that 2019 general elections will be won by the PDP.

According to her, nobody should be prevented from contesting the party primaries as the delegates to the party primaries are democratically empowered to decide the faith of all the contestants wishing to fly PDP flag at the 2019 general elections.

While she noted that the recent events at the national Assembly that led to the sack of the former DSS DG, Lawal Daura is a sign the era of a few trying to subvert the will of the people in the country is over, Lar also tasked the electoral body, the Independent Electoral Commission to conduct a free and fair election in 2019 so that the will of the people only will emerge as the winners at Presidential, Governorship and other elections in 2019 polls.