Why We Set up APDA During PDP Crisis - AIT Founder, Raymond Dokpesi Reveals

The Peoples Democratic Party's national chairmanship aspirant, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, on Tuesday opened up on why he and others formed the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA).

Chief Raymond Dokpesi

 

While speaking in Akure, the Ondo State capital, as he tried to woo delegates to vote him as the national chairman of the PDP at the forthcoming convention of the party, the party’s national chairmanship aspirant, Raymond Dokpesi, on Tuesday, denied that he ever left the party for the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA).

 

Recall that the AIT Television founder and CEO and former Labour Party chairman, Dan Inwuanyawu, and other members of the PDP had in June, floated APDA at the height of apprehensions that the Supreme Court judgment may go against the Ahmed Makarfi faction in the leadership tussle of the party.

 

Although Dokpesi had since fully realigned with the main structure of the PDP, the continued existence of APDA is casting a shadow on his ambition to become the national chairman of the PDP.

 

He said; “The idea of APDA was a plan B platform for the PDP when the party was in a crisis caused by the Sheriff group. 

“The party leaders at the time were aware of the plan and what we were doing. I never left the PDP, and when people asked me what the plan was I said plan A is PDP, plan A is PDP.”

 

Dokpesi said he believed in the PDP and its development, promising a number of reforms that would make the party stronger and viable ahead of the 2019 election.

 

While urging the Ondo delegates to give him their votes, he said he had the capacity to provide the needed leadership that would lead the party to victory in the coming general election.