There is disquiet in the South-West Zone of the Peoples
Democratic Party following the decision of a former Ekiti
State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, to lead a delegation of
state party chairmen from the zone to hold secret talks
with the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus.
It was gathered in Abuja on Friday that the meeting, held
in the Abuja residence of Secondus on Monday, raised a
lot of concerns among party members in the zone.
State party chairmen who were at the meeting included
those of Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti.
Although the meeting was held behind closed doors, it
was gathered that ongoing dispute over the control of the
party structure by contending forces in the zone,
especially in Ekiti State, formed the main crux of the
meeting.
A top-ranking party member of the party privy to the
meeting confided in newsmen that the audience granted
Fayose by Secondus was sending the wrong signals
because “it is a brazen attempt by the former Ekiti State
governor to undermine Seyi Makinde (Oyo State Governor),
who is the authentic leader of our party in the zone.”
The party leader said, “What our national chairman is
unwittingly doing is aligning with Fayose to undermine our
party. Why did I say so? The party gave the governor an
assignment to reconcile members in the zone, so Fayose
had no business leading state chairmen to a meeting with
our national chairman behind his (Makinde’s) back.
“As a countermeasure, the South-West caucus of the PDP
in the National Assembly where Fayose’s arch political
rival, Senator Biodun Olujimi, is a prominent member, met
and declared support for Makinde.”
Resolutions of an earlier meeting held by the caucus on
August 26 was published as an advertorial in a national
daily on Tuesday.
The resolution read in part, “At a meeting of the National
Assembly caucus of our great party, the PDP, held in
Abuja on 26th of August, 2020, the following resolutions
were unanimously adopted; that the leader of the party in
the Zone is His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Oyo
State, Seyi Makinde, that all PDP-related issues in the
zone must be channelled through him as our leader in the
South-West zone, all elected members from the zone are
solidly behind him, the National Working Committee
should please take note and act accordingly, that Senator
Ayo Akinyelure and Hon Muriana Ajibola was duly elected
as chairman and secretary of the caucus.”
In a telephone interview with one of our correspondents,
the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator
Walid Jibrin, who spoke generally on peace efforts being
made by the party across the states, said, “We at the BoT,
as the conscience of the party, will soon meet to address
the issues.
“We have recorded successes In Nasarawa State, and the
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, is also doing
wonderfully well in reconciling our members across the
North-Central.”
Meanwhile, a PDP chieftain, Opeyemi Falegan, called for
“genuine reconciliation” of the warring factions of the
party and among all aggrieved party members in the state.
Falegan, who called on members of Fayose and Olujimi
factions to sheathe their swords and embrace the
reconciliatory process, said the party should rise up
stronger from the contentious issues for it to be able to
reclaim the state from the All Progressives Congress,
which he said had not met the people’s yearnings.
The United Kingdom-based PDP chieftain in a statement
on Saturday titled, ‘Ekiti PDP crisis: Falegan harps on
genuine reconciliation,’ said this was not time to apportion
blames but to toe the path that would bring about
resolution of the issues that had divided members.
“No meaningful development can take place when the
party is in crisis, hence the need for an urgent
reconciliation now in order to put the party on the right
track politically. Therefore, what we need now is unity and
the cooperation of all,” he said.
The leadership crisis between Fayose and Olujimi, which
culminated in parallel ward, council and state congresses
had factionalised the party in the state.