We’ll not succumb to blackmail –Rivers PDP

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  Africcon Report: We’ll not succumb to blackmail –Rivers PDP
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  From: Africcon Media – Nigeria
  
  THE Peoples Democratic Party, Rivers State chapter, has said it will not succumb to blackmail from any of its members.
  
  The state PDP had been enmeshed in crisis since April 15, 2013, when an Abuja High Court ousted the Chief Godspower Ake-led executive of the party.
  
  But the State Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Felix Obuah, explained that despite the perceived disagreement in the ruling party, he would not tolerate any form of blackmail from it members.
  
  Speaking on Saturday during the thanksgiving organised by the party in Port Harcourt, Obuah specifically decried a situation where aggrieved members of the PDP in the state would accuse others of being after the state treasury.
  
  Describing such claim as a false alarm, Obuah warned that the PDP would not tolerate such attitude from its members.
  
  Obuah said, “There can be disagreement among members; such makes for robust democracy, and that is what politics is all about. We are concerned when people employ cheap blackmail and false alarms to portray occasions when there are disagreements, especially those fond of portraying others as being after the state’s treasury.
  
  “These are not acceptable to the party leadership. Rivers State is PDP and it shall remain so in 2015. All those who can make the required change in our party are here today.”
  
  He, however, used the occasion to declare the party’s support for President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the President deserved a second term in 2015.
  
  In his remarks, the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, who was mobbed by the crowd during the occasion, urged the Obuah-led executive and other members of the party to embrace peace and reconcile all aggrieved members.
  
  Meanwhile, a group, the Centre for Advancement of Justice and Peace in Emerging Democracies, has petitioned the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights over political developments in Rivers State.
  
  ICJAPED, in the petition by its Co-coordinator of African Region,   Dr. Stephen Briggs, and the Secretary General,   Chike Nwokobia on Sunday, described political activities in the state as disturbing.
  
  It stated that that documented accounts from  Nigerian based media outfits showed a worrying pattern of intimidation, threats, persecution and other abuses