PDP Elders fail to unite warring factions; Obasanjo admits party on verge of collapse

Efforts by elders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to broker peace in the lingering crisis of the party has hit a brick-wall again.
The elders led by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo met with the two factions separately at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja.
Other members of the troubleshooting group that attended were former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, and two former PDP National Chairmen, Senators Banabas Gemade and Ahmadu Alli.
DailyPost gathered that there was a joint meeting with the two groups before they were separated to hear their personal grievances.
While the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP stayed in Benue Hall, the Kawu Baraje New PDP was at the Kaduna Hall.
The Obasanjo-led elders were seen shuttling between the two locations throughout the five hours duration of the meeting.
Tukur attended the meeting in company of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Jonah Jang of Plateau, along with Henry Akitoye, the acting national secretary of the Tukur faction.
Baraje was accompanied by Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers.
The elders were said to have pleaded to both parties to give peace a chance in the interest of the party.
In a chat with journalists after the meetings, Obasanjo said: “I thank you for exercising patience. You have seen five of us. As selected elders of the party, we have taken it upon ourselves to prevent the worst from happening to our party.

“Two of us, (Solomon) Lar and (Alex) Ekwueme are abroad and could not join us but we are carrying them along. But suffice to say that there is family dispute within the PDP which we want to stem the tide of and prevent our party from going to the brink.
“And I want to say that we have met with the two sides of the family. We have listened to them and of course, we are going to put our heads together and go on from there.”
The Baraje faction was said to have gone straight to the venue of the planned secretariat after the Transcorp talks.
Baraje and Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, drove parallel secretariat of locate at Number 4, Oyi River Crescent, Maitama.
The two-storey building secretariat has Plot number 3206A.
The signboard placed on the side of the building was covered, but the gate had the PDP colour of green, white and red. Renovation work is still ongoing at the building.
Meanwhile, Kano state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has stated that governors under the new PDP were considering leaving the party.
In an interview with BBC Hausa Service, he said: We are still members of PDP but if the party fails to resolve the ongoing crisis, we have different options one of which is to declare for another party.
“If the leaders are careful enough in their handling of the situation, there will be peaceful resolution, but if we find out that they are trying to be mischievous, we will have no problem in joining the APC, after all, they are our stalwarts and are our people.”
Six other governors in the New PDP are Amaechi, Wamakko, Lamido, Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).