‘PDP will take over from APC in 2019’

A chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former governor of old Gongola State, Wilberforce Juta has expressed optimism that the party would bounce back and win the 2019 general elections.

Speaking to reporters in Abuja, Juta who is also a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) explained that his position was based on the new found strength of the party after the recent Supreme Court judgment that settled the leadership tussle of the party in favour Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

Juta said it was heartwarming that many of those who defected from the party across the country are now returning in droves.He maintained that the PDP could sweep the 2019 poll without forming alliance with any of the opposition political parties but added that the PDP is willing to avail other political parties of like minds, the opportunity of joining ranks with it to wrest power from the APC just as he did not rule out the possibility of the party changing its name.

According to him, “Many of our top ranking members that left the party are coming back, in fact, as we speak, we are being flooded by people who are trying to come back home.  Even some serving governors, many of them are coming back home. Just wait and see; by the time we finish the mini or special convention we are having in less than two weeks time, you will see how many people will be flooding into PDP.

“You know you don’t change a name of a party just like that. That party has been known for a long time. However, if there are other political parties that will like to form alliance with the party and maybe try to forge together, we can contemplate that.

“It is possible because these are different political parties coming together for synergy to make it stronger. They may decide to change the name but unless that happens, you don’t just go changing the name of your party with all that you have worked for over the years. I don’t see any move for changing the name of the party at all.”

Stressing that PDP’s loss to the APC was avoidable if the early warnings of its founding fathers were heeded, he blamed the situation on the absence of internal democracy in the party.

He said, “Even in the first place before the crisis started, I and many of us that were founding fathers of the party were not happy and so we were vindicated by what happened to the party.  
We lost the government after 16 years and there was no need for that to happen if our pieces of advice were heeded.