… as Saraki’s fence-mending effort fails
- It’s not true – Ologbondiyan
- Lai Mohammed takes over state leadership, meets stakeholders
There are strong indications that the Kwara State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party may have resolved to move en-masse to the All Progressives Congress to protest what they described as the hijack of the party structure by Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that this was the outcome of different levels of top stakeholders’ meetings, cutting across the executives and selected party elders, which held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital over the weekend.
Disturbed by the brewing tension, the PDP National Working Committee has mandated the party’s Committee on Contact and Mobilisation to wade in and hold talks with stakeholders, with the aim of fine-tuning the power sharing formula. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday in Abuja.
Key members of the party in Kwara State, however, told our correspondent that the fence-mending efforts of the party at the national level was, however, belated.
According to a highly placed PDP source, the party stakeholders have already finalised talks with the APC, and the ruling party is eager to fill the vacuum left by the Saraki group.
We will be sending a message to the whole world on Wednesday, through our massive rally, aimed at showing how unpopular Dr. Bukola Saraki is at home
Speaking on the development, a source privy to the negotiations said, “More than 90 per cent of the present PDP structure will be decamping to the APC in the next couple of days, although we will attend the reconciliatory committee set up by the national PDP. The meeting is aimed at finding a harmonious power sharing deal with the ‘Sarakites’ and we have insisted that it is either they leave the structure of the party as it is or they forget about us.
“After due consultations with relevant stakeholders across the 16 local governments, we’ve all concluded to dump the PDP for the APC, which, ironically, is eager to receive us.”
The source said that leaders of the party had met with the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, adding that they were given the assurance of fair treatment.
He said, “Our leaders have met with national leaders of the APC. They’ve met with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, representatives of the Presidency and we have the assurance of a level playing field.
“We will be sending a message to the whole world on Wednesday, through our massive rally, aimed at showing how unpopular Dr. Bukola Saraki is at home. This will assist in correcting the erroneous impression that Saraki owns us all in Kwara.”
In the same vein, the Oro born Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is on the queue to assume the leadership of APC in Kwara State once Saraki decamps.
In an attempt to further consolidate his new leadership role, the information minister, who arrived Ilorin, amid a rousing welcome by party faithful, held a stakeholders’ meeting with politicians across party divides, especially those in the disenchanted PDP fold.
Meanwhile, Saraki has continued his fence mending efforts, trying to woo leaders of the party towards accepting to work with him in the party.
The state Chairman of the party, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo had said, in an an exclusive interview with The Point in Ilorin, that “the unceasing attempt to bring Bukola Saraki back to the party” was a let-down for the average Kwaran who had grown to see the PDP as a credible alternative.
Oyedepo had said, “It is practically impossible for us to co-habit with Bukola Saraki in Kwara PDP; we have always had issues with him and his style of politics. Once he joins us, we’ve lost a moral ground to mount the podium and criticise him and his style.
“For the past 16 years, his ‘regime’ has been a big impediment to us in Kwara. What shall we say about water problems, neglect in agriculture, infrastructural deficit, high insecurity, collapsed educational structure, among others?
“That is why we are not yielding any ground to him whatsoever. If he can come and not demand to be handed the structure; if he can come and not demand to bring his undemocratic mode of candidate selection; if he can come and respect constituted authorities in the state, then so be it. But it’s truism he’ll never do such.”
IT’S NOT TRUE – PDP
But the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said speculations about plans by the party members in Kwara to defect to the APC were untrue.
Ologbondiyan told The Point that the state chairman of the party had, at a meeting with the national leadership in Abuja, expressed satisfaction with the situation of things in the party in the state.
He said, “They have not informed us. So, I do not have a comment on that. You are talking about a political environment and it is like running water; until the end of everything, that’s when everything will be known. As it is, they are talking; those who are coming in and those who they are meeting.
“As far as I am concerned, some leaders of the party in the state came to the national secretariat. The state chairman came to the national secretariat to hold a meeting with the national chairman and he said they were okay with the situation of things. The information about PDP members’ mass defection to APC in Kwara is far from the truth. I don’t believe that it is
correct.”
