EXPEL DISSENTERS, MADUEKWE URGES PDP

By Henry Umoru
ABUJA-FORMER Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador-Designate, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, yesterday, called on Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to expel from its fold any member who makes utterances not in tandem with the party's agenda, mission and vision.

The call is coming barely five days after the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi(rtd), blamed the present security breaches in Nigeria on PDP zoning formula, which locked out some ethnic groups or some zones of the country from controlling the affairs of Nigeria at a particular time, contrary to the 1999 Constitution.

Maduekwe, a former National Secretary of the party, took a swipe at the immediate past administration of PDP, saying the party was like an aircraft without radar, prior to the coming on board of the present Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee, NWC.

He spoke, yesterday, when he submitted the 2011/12 report of the National Congress and Planning Committee of the party to the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, at Wadata House, Abuja, headquarters of the PDP.

Maduekwe said: 'Reckless statements and utterances must be sanctioned by the party.'

Those undermining the unity of the nation should be expelled from the party.'

He also called on the present NWC to, as a matter of urgency, engage in regular meetings at all levels to discuss not only election matters, but also policy matters.

'We are not only a ruling party but a governing party,' he added.