I’m ready to reconcile aggrieved PDP members - Dickson

By  Soni Daniel,          Regional Editor, North
LAGOS — Governor of Bayelsa State and Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party ad-hoc committee on reconciliation, Mr. Seriake Dickson, yesterday, said he was ready to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party with a view to ensuring the success of the party in the next election.

Dickson, who has come under attack as unsuitable to head the committee apparently because of his closeness to the President, said he would be neutral and fair in handling his assignment.

The governor said he would first consult with the founding fathers and stakeholders of the party with a view to ensuring the success of his committee.

Dickson said the committee was conscious of the enormous responsibility being placed on the members and that they had resolved to conduct the assignment with the highest sense of responsibility and commitment to the core values of national unity and party cohesion.

The position of the committee was contained in a statement signed by its Secretary, Amb. Umar Damagum and made available to Vanguard in Abuja.

The committee said: “The Reconciliation Committee’s work shall place emphasis on utmost confidentiality of all matters brought to it. Members shall ensure strict confidentiality of all information received by them or such information that may be processed by the committee, its leadership or any of its organs as may be established from time to time.

No interaction with media

“To boost the level of confidence among our members nationwide while this committee undertakes its assignment, no member shall interact with the media on any matter under consideration by the committee, except with due approval by the committee or its leadership.

“The committee shall be committed to the principles of neutrality. To this end, no member of the committee shall serve in any congress committee in a state where such a member is an interested party.

“Similarly no member of the committee shall hold any inappropriate meeting or contact with any party member, whose matter is under consideration by the committee especially as regards  the subject matter under discussion by the committee.

“The committee as a whole and its individual members shall be committed to the principles of fairness to all parties. All party members to be reconciled shall be guaranteed the right to fair hearing.”

Elections in Anambra, Ekiti

It noted that in view of the approaching gubernatorial elections in Anambra and Ekiti states, the committee was conscious of reconciling warring factions in the two states with a view to ensuring that the PDP captures them.

The governor, however, urged aggrieved members of the party in the two states to refrain from all forms of hostilities and allow them to do the work at hand in the interest of peace.

The governor noted: “The committee also seizes this opportunity to call on all patty members at all levels, irrespective of status, to refrain from comments, remarks, utterances or actions that may inflame tension among party members and overheat the polity.

“This is important in order to create the needed atmosphere for genuine reconciliation.”