The Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun and the Labour Party in the state are at loggerheads over alleged plans by the LP to woo the suspended Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Buruji Kashamu to its fold.
The PDP in the state described the moves by the LP to attract embattled Kashamu as “mere wishful thinking” and a dream that would never come true.
Barely 48 hours after his suspension by the former National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, the LP had expressed its willingness to accept and accommodate Kashamu.
LP National Chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, had described Kashamu as a lawmaker who had not been found wanting in Nigerian politics, saying that his party was ready to accept him if he showed interest in its membership.
If he wants to come to our party as a patriotic Nigerian, he is welcome
“I have not met him. If he wants to come to our party as a patriotic Nigerian, as a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who as at now has not been found wanting, he is welcome,” he had said.
But the PDP State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Bolaji Adeniji, in a swift reaction, said that although the LP had the right to woo Kashamu, the lawmaker would never defect to any other party, despite his illegal suspension by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee.
“The LP is another party; they are free to woo anybody. It is now left for the person they are wooing to decide whether he or she wants to go to the party. Senator Buruji Kashamu remains a chieftain of the party at the national level, he remains the leader of the party in Ogun State and so there is no cause for him to leave the party for now,” he said.
Adeniji said Kashamu’s suspension was null and void, adding that the LP should not take the development as an opportunity to woo the lawmaker.
“The purported suspension of Senator Buruji Kashamu is null and void. You can’t suspend a serving senator, who is also a member of NEC. Only the NEC can suspend him. He was never called, he was never given a query, he was never given a fair hearing. Some people woke up on the morning of the convention and said he should be suspended for one month. On what basis, on what rationale?” he said.
But the state Chairman of LP, Comrade Abayomi Arabambi, said that his party was not begging Kashamu to join its fold.
Arabambi, however, said if the suspended senator showed interest in joining the LP, he would be welcome to the party.
“We are not trying to beg Senator Buruji Kashamu to come our party. Supposing he said he wants to come, we will do our internal checking; not that we want to beg the senator to join our party,” he said.
