Bayelsa: Former President Goodluck Jonathan, had backed the Governor Seriake Dickson-led Peace and Reconciliation Committee, insisting that political solution remains the best option to resolving the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Jonathan spoke after receiving the report of the Dickson Committee and presented to him at his Otuoke country home in Ogbia local government area of Bayelsa State.
He urged the contending parties to embrace compromise and negotiations as a way out of the PDP imbroglio.
He specially commended the governor and his entourage for going round the country to meet with key stakeholders and leaders of the party in order to return peace to the PDP.
The former president said he believed that a political solution remained the best means of resolving the crisis in the party, noting that Dickson and his committee deserved all the encouragement.
Jonathan expressed reservation over the use of courts to settle purely political matters, stressing that political solution would ensure a win-win outcome for the warring groups within the party.
“I believe political solution remains the best means of resolving the crisis in the party and that is why the Dickson committee must be commended”, the former President said.
“No two parties go to court and come out smiling especially for a political party like the PDP that is in the opposition.”
While giving instances of people, who went to court and, at the end, did not get the desired result, he noted that courts should ordinarily have no business in deciding who should be the chairman of a political party. He called on the parties to submit themselves to a political solution and expressed hope that it would finally rest the protracted crisis.
“The PDP will come out strong.
We are talking to ourselves, we are discussing among ourselves and people should not be worried. PDP will come out of this seeming impasse stronger before next election,” he assured. Dickson, in his remarks, before presenting the report to the former President, aligned himself to some of the remarks made by Aba Gana, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who earlier spoke. Dickson added that Bayelsa benefited substantially from the PDP, declaring that the party remained the only one that has given the position of President to Bayelsa, a minority.
