ELDERS of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State yesterday said that a reconciliatory process that would promote peace between the new state executive of the party and loyalists of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi had become very imperative.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, the PDP elders led by Sergeant Awuse and a former House of Representatives deputy speaker, Austin Opara, also denied reports that the presidency was manipulating the national leadership of the PDP to remove the party structure in the state from the hands of Amaechi.
Awuse said that the Abuja High Court Judgment that replaced the Chief Godpower Umejuru Ake-led Executive Committee of the party in the state with the new executive committee led by Felix Amaechi Obuah had nothing to do with presidency.
Awuse said: "I want to point out that the presidency has no hands in the matter at all. It was a case of separation of power where a competent court of law delivered judgment based on facts presented before it.
"So, it is not an attempt to pull the rug off Amaechi's feet or to remove the party from him. It couldn't have been so because in the first place, the party never belonged to an individual; it belongs to the people."
On the reconciliation issue, he stated that the new executive committee of the PDP in Rivers State had set up a peace committee to ensure that all members of the party in the State were properly united before the 2015 elections.
The PDP leaders also denied speculation that Amaechi was going to defect from the party on account of the court judgment pointing out that there was no reason the governor, who is currently the leader of the party in River State, could contemplate defecting to another party.
However, the River State PDP Legislative Forum said yesterday that what was playing out in the State PDP was an attempt to ensure that the party was greater than any of its members.
Chairman of the forum, Kingsley Chinda, in a separate press conference in Abuja, equally ruled out the possibility of Amaechi defecting from the PDP.
But he said that the merit of making the party greater than every member was to avoid any negative effect of the defection of any of its member to another party.
The forum also denied reports that the Rivers State House of Assembly was planning to impeach Amaechi.
