Orbih Says PDP Must Play Its Role As Opposition Party, Call For S/South Stakeholders Meeting

The National Vice Chairman South-South of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dan Orbih, has urged the party to start playing its role as the main opposition party in Nigeria.

Naija News reports that Orbih said this on Thursday when he led the South-South party executive on a courtesy visit to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.

Orbih, who is a former chairman of the PDP in Edo State, noted that the former ruling party remains the hope of the people.

He slammed the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government over its continuous borrowing, urging PDP members in the National Assembly to speak up.

“The conscious policy of the FGN to mortgage our future must stop. These loans are not deployed for economic productive ventures but for railway lines from Kastina to Niger,” Orbih said.

“What we spend in combating herdsmen atrocities and kidnapping if deployed in the Agricultural sector can make Nigeria provide enough food for the whole of Africa.

“What a country so blessed but grossly mismanaged. When will they stop borrowing? Let our members in the National Assembly speak out and express our party’s stand on these loans.

“Unfortunately, the committee in charge of loans has a PDP member as Chairman. How do people see us when we turn around to criticise the loans?”

2023 election

Speaking further, the PDP stalwart called for a South-South stakeholders meeting to let the people of the region know the direction to go as the country approaches 2023.

“We commend Governors and leaders in the North who have thrown their support for the Southern Governors’ Lagos resolution.

“By their support they have demonstrated their abiding faith in a united Nigeria that stands on the pillars of equal rights and justice,” he added.

Orbih urged Governor Okowa to mobilise the people of the state to take advantage of the ongoing voter registration exercise to enable them to participate in the next election.

He disclosed that the team came on the visit “as part of our movement round the Zone to appeal to the Governors and leaders of our zone on the need for the party to remain focused and united.”

The Edo north politician lamented that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) had now become “the National Headquarters of fraud”.

He added that from news, the forensic audit had uncovered 12,128 abandoned jobs with no specific ownership, adding that what it meant was that the Niger Delta had been abandoned by NDDC.

Responding, Governor Okowa disclosed that PDP governors and leaders are doing all they can to keep the main opposition party strong and united.

On NDDC, the Delta governor said the governors of the region would continue to push for the constitution of the board, adding that forensic audit was not supposed to stop the constitution of the board.

Speaking further, Okowa stated that the federal government must rethink the loans process to be sure that a burden won’t be left for the incoming administration to handle.