A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, has dissociated himself from a court action instituted by a factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Modu Sheriff, and others seeking to stop the party from going ahead with the August 17 national convention.
Metuh, who is currently undergoing a trial for alleged corruption, said he was surprised to see his name as one of the plaintiffs in the suit seeking to halt the convention.
Metuh, who stated this in a statement issued by his aide, Mr. Richard Ihediwa, in Abuja on Thursday, said his concern now was his health and his cases in court.
He said that he never instructed anyone to file any such suit on his behalf.
The statement said, "For the avoidance of doubt, Metuh has taken the pains to consult those that went to court and has been reliably informed that his name was listed in error and which they have promised to rectify accordingly.
"It is pertinent to mention that Metuh has not attended any political meeting and/or programme since his chair accident at a function at the party's national secretariat (of the PDP ) in April wherein he aggravated his spinal cord ailment.
"Our appeal to all and sundry therefore is that Metuh at this time should be left out of intra-party controversies. His only preoccupation now remains matters concerning his health and the extant court trial."
Meanwhile, the leadership of the party has described as preposterous, the recent threat to arrest the party's governorship candidate in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, before the September 10 election by Governor Adams Oshiomhole as an indication that the governor was nervous and unsettled that the PDP's moving train might uproot the APC from the state.
The party in a statement on Thursday in Abuja by its spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, queried when it had become the duty of Oshiomhole to dictate to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and asked if the governor was becoming an operative of the anti-corruption agency.
"We have observed in recent times the utterances of the Governor of Edo State during the APC's governorship campaigns ahead of the September 10, election in the state and we wish to remind him that he should maintain the sanctity of his office as the governor instead of directing the EFCC of who to arrest or prosecute," Adeyeye said.
He alleges that the Oshiomhole's statement confirmed the belief and the opinion of some Nigerians that the anti-corruption war of the present administration was nothing but a partisan political agenda to intimidate, suppress and silence the PDP.
"Governor Adams Oshiomhole is desperate to hang on to power through his imposed stooge, despite the fact that he has lost the trust and confidence of the people of Edo State," Adeyeye added.
Meanwhile, a national chairmanship aspirant in the PDP, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, on Thursday, said impunity was the bane of the party in the 2015 general elections.
Dokpesi, who addressed over 120 delegates of the Cross River State PDP members during his campaign in Calabar, said he was capable of taking the party to victory in the 2019 presidential election.
He said, "...We must assess properly the vision of the founding fathers of this party. We must see where we had derailed. There was a lot of impunity. We cannot deny the fact that we derailed from the vision of the founding fathers.
"We cannot deny the fact that godfathers took over, that the ordinary members of the party were relegated. We need to connect with the electorate. We need to rebrand the PDP. I cannot sit down and watch things go the way they are going."
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