Abia State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Emma Nwaka, has appealed to party faithful to use the opportunity of the upcoming PDP primaries nationwide to rebuild the party.

Nwaka was briefing newsmen in his office in Umuahia on Friday on the forthcoming party primaries in Abia State. He maintained that electing credible and popular members into the party hierarchy rather than imposition would help the party to retake its pride of place as the most formidable political party in the country.

“The temporary setback we experienced at the centre in the last general election has taught us a big lesson,” Nwaka said, stressing that “this is a fresh opportunity for us to rebuild and reposition the party.”

He warned that the party would not tolerate impunity and hijacking of party structure as the party could not afford to repeat its past mistakes.

The Abia PDP Chairman said that the party would do everything possible to ensure that the leaders that would emerge through the congresses in the state scheduled to kick off by April 23, 2016, are credible grassroots politicians with acceptability.

“We should endeavour to vote for people who are in good standing with their communities; respectable men and women whose words carry enormous weight, people who are principled and capable of attracting all and sundry to their political meetings,” Nwaka said.

Senator Nwaka hinted that though the new set of party leaders were expected to emerge through the ballot, the party would “encourage the emergence of consensus candidates through zoning at all levels.”

He assured that the party would stick to zoning arrangement in filling the leadership positions to give every section a sense of belonging, and announced that a seven-man zoning committee headed by Engr. Solomon Ogunji, has been set up for that purpose.

The Abia PDP boss maintained that in adopting a consensus candidate, party members must “avoid a situation where one person or even just a few will arrogate to themselves ‘the right’ to assemble the executive committee of our party at any level.”

According to him, any person nursing the ambition of hijacking the party structure should be ready for stiff resistance from the organisers of the party congress.

“This is an opportunity for us to build a virile political party with a leadership at all levels we should all be proud of and happy to work with,” Nwaka said, adding: “It must be clear to all of us that the era of impunity is behind us.”

He urged the organisers of the congresses to be wary of imposition of candidates because such acts could backfire and leave the party in disarray.

•Photo shows Senator Emma Nwaka.

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