The ongoing squabble rocking the boat of the ruling PDP has become
the greatest threat to the dream of the party to recover Osun and Ekiti
states from the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party lost the two states to the then Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) through a judicial verdict at the Court of Appeal. Although the
chieftains of the party have been calculating and strategizing on how to
recover the states, LEADERSHIP checks reveal that the hope to win Osun
and Ekiti remains a pipe dream.
Aside from the internal squabbles that led to the loss of the zone
to the ACN and Labour Party either through election or judicial
verdicts, the post-Special Convention that led to the emergence of the
new PDP is compounding their problems.
“We have been trying our best to regroup and strategise on how to
recover Osun and Ekiti states back from APC. We were even thinking of
how to pick our candidates in the two elections who would win for us
when the crisis at the centre began. This has taken us back and this is
why we are praying hard for a quick resolution of the crisis,” a PDP
chieftain told our correspondent.
Speaking further, he rued how the party lost the southwest due to
the selfish desires of some of its leaders who mobilized for the
opposition parties at the expense of the party. “When you look at the
Ogun State, it was Gbenga Daniel and his supporters that helped the
opposition to take over that state; it was former governor Rasheed
Ladoja who did the same in Oyo and the court helped them to take over
Osun and Ekiti from PDP; and now that we are on the verge of recovering
these states, those who have won the governors in the past are working
against the party. This is selfish,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, former national deputy chairman of the
party, south-west , Alhaji Shaib Oyedokun, lamented how the likes of
Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola were working against the success of the party
after using the same platform to win and rule.
“Those people causing crisis within the party are political
pollutants; they have used the party to attain political heights but
today they don’t care what becomes of the party. This is ungodly, wicked
and selfish,” Oyedokun said.
However, he was optimistic the party would not only bounce back but recover the two states whenever it’s election time.
“We have crisis, but we would soon overcome it. We are working hard
to ensure the crisis is resolved on time and we would be ready for the
APC, and I am sure we would recover the two states come sun, come rain. I
appeal to our people to be patient with the party.”
On the late Solomon Lar, the PDP chieftain described the late
politician as a nationalist and selfless politician whose death has
robbed the country of a leading light that Nigeria has ever produced.
He said: “I had the privilege of working briefly with Chief Solomon
Lar as his deputy when he was the national chairman of our party. His
sense of humour was legendary that would make it difficult for us who
worked with him to forget him. He was the hero who, during the critical
days of General Sani Abacha, led other selfless democrats to bell the
cat. He lived as a unifier, pacifier and reconciliator.
“As the founding national chairman of our party, he laid a solid
foundation upon which the party stands till today. I strongly believe
those who are trying to destroy the party would have a change of heart
in honour of this great politician. The nation would greatly miss him.”
LEADERSHIP
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