Former Minister of Transportation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has advised the G-7 governors not to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that any attempt by the governors to go to APC would amount to political suicide. Speaking to Saturday Mirror in an exclusive interview, Babatope said there was nothing APC could offer them.
Noted that if they thought APC would offer them temporary asylum, it was an asylum that would crack and they would regret for the rest of their lives. His words: "The G-7 governors are men that many people respected within the party.
We love them and find it extremely difficult to comprehend the situation whereby these men are fleeing or are trying to flee with the APC. I want to appeal to the seven governors not to leave the PDP.
They should stay in the PDP, make their points known to the PDP leaders and their points would be totally examined, objectively assessed to ensure that we have a PDP that is totally reformed. Nobody has said that PDP should not be reformed. We have been talking about it that we need a party that is reformed and would be able to satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of the people.
"Let them stay in the PDP and make their points. They are governors and nobody would push them aside. But if they make the mistake to go and align themselves with the strange elements of the APC, they will regret it till their dying days. No political rebellion has ever succeeded in any part of the world.
"I am appealing to the G-7 governors; they are young men and most of them have a bright future before them but they must not take into gambling by saying that they want to go to APC. I believe that there is nothing APC can offer them. If they think that APC will offer them temporary asylum, it is an asylum that will crack and they will regret for the rest of their life."
Babatope, while stressing the need for the G-7 governors not to go to APC said: "PDP is not ready to witch-hunt anybody and that is why I am appealing to the G-7 governors to stay in the PDP and they would be surprised themselves that many people would support them for what they are doing in term of reforming the party and then the party would move ahead. I am appealing to them not to commit political suicide by joining a party that they never understand.
If they join APC, their political fire would be extinguished and many of them would go to political oblivion. "APC will eventually discard them. Even if they are not discarded, they will discard themselves because they will discover that they are irrelevant to what is happening there."
Speaking on the recent suspension of four leaders of the Alhaji Kawu Baraje-led PDP, Babatope, who is a member of the Umaru Dikko-led PDP National Disciplinary Committee, said that the suspended members would be giving fair hearing whenever they appear before the disciplinary committee.
"We want the best for our party and we are going to achieve it. If they bring them before the disciplinary committee, we are going to give them fair hearing.
The members of the committee are experienced people and what do we have to gain in terms of witch-hunting anybody. We are going to give them a fair hearing. But what is important is that we will not allow the integrity of the president of this country, who is the leader of the party and also the integrity of the party leaders to be ridiculed or to be enmeshed in messy affairs. So, we will give them fair hearing."