Plateau State PDP Chairman Dr. Haruna Dabin

Governor Jonah Jang and the PDP in the central Nigerian state of Plateau will be “very happy’’ to welcome returnees to its fold, Dr Haruna Dabin, the state Chairman, declared in Jos on Wednesday.

“No politician plays with numbers; we shall be very willing to receive old members that want to return after their sojourn to other political parties,’’ Dabin told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He was reacting to reports that Jang had shut the door against erstwhile PDP senior members like former Governor Joshua Dariye, former Deputy Governor Paulen Tallen, and many others seeking to return to the party.

Dariye left the PDP in 2010 and won the Plateau Central senate seat on the ticket of the Labour Party (LP), while Tallen failed in her bid to unseat her former boss in the 2011 governorship contest on the same LP ticket.

“The notion that Jang is not willing to welcome the former members is not true. We have been speaking with people that had never ever been in PDP like the leader of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Gen. Jerry Useini, who is seeking to move to PDP.

“So, for the returnees, it is even a much simpler situation because it is a house they built and left and now seeking to return. We shall always be happy to have them back,’’ he said.

He said that the PDP constitution was very explicit on returning members, and explained that such persons may have to be on probation for nothing less than one year “unless they receive a waiver from the party’’.

Dabin hinted, however, that such members may lose their seniority as they may have to register all over again at their wards and queue behind members that had remained loyal.

The party chief said that he had instructed ward officials to promptly process applications from the prospective returnees.

“We have also advised returnees, whose applications were being delayed at the wards, to send an advance copy to the state secretariat for quick action,’’ he said.

He dismissed suggestions that the returning members may have personality clashes with the party’s leaders at the local levels, and explained that the PDP was a large family that could accommodate everyone and all interests. (NAN)