NIGERIA (Abuja) – The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alh. Bamanga Tukur, has expressed his desire to retain his position until 2016 when his tenure will officially expire.

Tukur made this declaration when a team of PDP youth drawn from 19 northern states paid him a solidarity visit at his Abuja residence yesterday. He was elected in March, 2012.

There were speculations at the weekend that the presidency had pencilled the national chairman down for an ambassadorial position following the protracted crisis in the PDP.

The reports said the agenda was being pushed by the governors elected on the platform of the party who were not comfortable with the increasing defection of their members to other parties, especially the All Progressives Congress, APC.

In order to debunk the rumour, Alh. Tukur, described the report as figment of the imagination of their authors, adding that the presidency never thought of sending him out of the country as an ambassador under any guise.

“I have a job to do as the PDP Chairman, and I cannot throw in the towel in the middle of it just because certain individuals known for selfish motives get to the media to fund fictitious report often crafted to precipitate crises in our party and ultimately cause its fall.

“The crises we are witnessing in PDP are about 2015. The promoters are members who wanted to be President at all costs, they are those who wanted to be vice President at all costs and those who wanted to seek re-election as governors. Most of them felt if there was no crisis, their different ambitions would not be fulfilled.

“If you check it very well, the people who say Tukur must go cannot lay hand on one reason to justify their wish.

“I did nothing to violate the constitution of the party. I did nothing to wrong anyone. I did nothing to soil my hands in anything. My conscience vindicates me every time. So I am free as the PDP National Chairman.

“Now some people said I am not a friend of the governors. But they forgot that during my campaign, I visited all of them one by one to sell my programmes for the party. We started with the process of reconciliation and asked estranged members to return to the party. Some people opposed it.” Tukur said.

He urged members of the PDP to cooperate with the leadership of the party so as to make it more dependable.