A founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jerry Gana, has stated that the crisis that has plagued the party since 2022 was confined to Abuja and did not affect its grassroots structure nationwide.

Gana, while speaking on the state of the party, emphasised that many critics have overlooked PDP’s enduring grassroots presence and historical significance in Nigeria’s democracy.

Naijaonpoint reports that Gana reminded Nigerians that the PDP played a pivotal role in ending military rule and had once dominated the country’s political landscape.

Speaking in an interview on Arise News, Gana said, “I must confess that many people have forgotten that the PDP was created as a grassroots organisation.

“In 1998, we were formed and then, moving to the elections in 1999, we were in every polling unit, because we are the ones who really won the first election.

“Many people have forgotten the PDP won most of the local governments, when it came to the presidential elections, we won the presidency, we won the Senate, we won the House.

“We were totally in control, and that is why we were very delighted that we restored democracy to Nigeria and re-established civil rule.

“Because for a number of years there was military rule but we successfully terminated that in a very democratic way, so the PDP was really as it were, a grassroots party.

“That’s why when we said ‘power to the people’, we meant it because that was what it was, and it has been like that.

“So when this recent problem happened, it was really among a few elites here in Abuja. It didn’t even go beyond.”