BY AYO ESAN
CHAIRMAN, South-West Peoples Democratic Party Reconciliation Committee, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has assured that his committee has the wherewithal to address the problems confronting the Lagos State chapter of the party and bring about peace and unity to the fold.
Oyinlola, who is a former military administrator of the state, gave this assurance, while addressing journalists in Lagos, on Thursday, shortly after meeting with some party stakeholders, at a parley which took place at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja.
He urged PDP leaders and faithful to cooperate with the committee to enable it to bring the party back to the winning way, noting that Nigerians were eager to have the PDP back in power, owing to the failure of the ruling All Progressives Congress to fulfill promises made to them.
PDP chieftains present at the stakeholders meeting included former chairmen of the party, Sentoji Kosedo and Adegbola Dominic; former House of Representatives candidate, Fatima Muhammed, Ola Apena, and Rahman Owokoniran, among others.
They were all said to have affirmed former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Olabode George, as the leader in the state, urging that other leaders must be made to realise such to enable the party resolve its crisis and move forward.
They had suggested that the party in the state would be at peace, united and be able to win the state if only just five leaders, including George, Bimbo Ogunkelu, abd Aduke Maina were brought together and united.
Oyinlola said, “One thing that must be done is to get to the root cause of the problem and like I said, we are still going to meet the stakeholders who are concerned with what is happening in the party and until that is done, we might not be able to proffer the solution.
“The people mentioned, they are all known to me. Please don’t forget that I was once a military administrator of this state and none of them is new to me. I think I am a step ahead in getting solution.
“They (party faithful) should please cooperate with the committee, let’s bring back our party to the winning way. The people are yearning for PDP to come back because for every promise made by the APC-led government, it is a promise not fulfilled and I don’t see why we should not be elected.”
He harped on the need for the party leaders and members to unite, recalling that the party lost to APC in 2015 because of lack of unity, adding that Nigerians could today see clearly that APC had never been equal in performance and keeping promises.
“We were in power, one of the things that took us out was the fact that we refused to unite and that was why we allowed them to come in and they took over power. But today, every Nigerian knows very well that the government of APC has never been equal in performance and keeping promises,” he said.
On former Governor Ayodele Fayose, Oyinlola said his name had not featured at the parley because it was scheduled to discuss the issue of Lagos State, and not Ekiti State, where Fayose is from, and, therefore, did not see any reason why he should mention anything about him.
“I have not mentioned Ayo Fayose because Ayo Fayose is not from Lagos State and we have come to discuss the issue of Lagos State and I don’t see any reason why I should make reference to Ayo Fayose.
“The group that he is leading is an issue that should be of concern to everyone in the South-West and I think steps are being taken to resolve the issue and make sure that we are one in South-West,” Oyinlola stated.
