PDP will not drown -Mark •I'll run for Senate under PDP -Uduaghan

SENATE President, David Mark, has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not drown, in spite of its hydra-headed problems, assuring that the leaders of the party will unite to save it from its current crisis.

In a statement issued in Abuja, on Thursday, by his media aide, Mr Kola Ologbodiyan, Mark said “we will arrest the current situation and save our party from further disintegration.

“Some Nigerians are talking about Tsunami in the PDP because of the defection by some members of our party holding elective and non-elective positions. But, as leaders, we will not sit by and continue to allow this drift. We shall do the needful and ensure that we save our great party.”

Mark, however, admitted that the recent development in the troubled party was a challenge, but he said genuine efforts would be made to reconcile the party men and women and bring peace and unity in the party.

He was optimistic that the Senate would remain a united family, saying that what affected the welfare and well-being of Nigerians would be the interests of the Senate.

Meanwhile, Mark has called for global approach to tackle terrorism, in order to end the menace threatening peace in most parts of the world.

He made the call in Abuja, when he played host to the British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Mr Jeremy Wright, adding that world leaders must come together to work out a blue print to fight terrorism.

The Senate President noted the growing trend and spread of terrorists across the globe and canvassed for a collaborative effort to end the menace.

Applauding the agreement between Nigeria and Britain on Prisoners Transfer Agreement (PTA), he said Nigeria would uphold the sanctity of the agreement.

Senator Mark noted that there were many patriotic and credible Nigerians doing legitimate business abroad, but a few bad eggs were causing the misgivings about Nigerian citizens.

He also requested the former colonial masters, as an older democracy, to help Nigeria improve and sustain its democratic experiment, by helping to strengthen the democratic institutions in the land.

Earlier, Mr Wright, accompanied on the visit by the British Ambassador to Nigeria, Andrew Pocock, had said he was in Nigeria to seal an agreement with the country on transfer of prisoners between both countries.

In another development, the Delta State governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has given President Goodluck Jonathan a pass mark, adding that so far, he had done well, in spite of challenges bedeviling his administration.

Uduaghan, at a media briefing with journalists in Delta State, held at the Government House, Asaba, on Thursday, debunked the rumour that he would quit the ruling party if he was denied a senatorial ambition.

He said in spite of the onerous challenges faced by President Jonathan since the inception of his administration in 2011, visible achievements had been recorded so far.

“We are in support of the president wholeheartedly. He has done very well so far. He has faced a lot of challenges and distractions,” the governor stated, adding that the bane of the president is that his achievements had not been well reported.

The governor debunked a story published in a national daily that he was planning to defect to another party in order to fulfill his senatorial ambition.

He said the understanding among the people of Delta South senatorial district was that the senatorial seat be rotated among the ethnic groups in the district, saying that the next turn goes to the Itsekiri people, a development that made him eligible if he so wished.

“There is no reason for me to leave PDP. I will swim and sink with PDP,” he said adding that the party would win all subsequent elections in the state.

He said the ultimate goal of his administration was to create a state not entirely dependent on oil, so that jobless youths could be gainfully employed.