2018 Governorship Ambition Behind PDP Disrupted Ward Congress

By Shina Abubakar

Investigations have revealed that the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to conclude its ward congresses was due to power play between the different actors in the party struggling for political relevance ahead the 2018/19 elections in the state.

It was gathered that the major obstacle the congress faced was the ambition of some gladiators in the party, who are hell-bent on protecting their political interest in the forthcoming elections in the state, particularly; the Governorship, states and National Assembly elections.

At the inception of the caretaker committee, it was learnt that the Senator Iyiola Omisore group had been seeking a compromise with the other factions in the party to concede 30 percent of the wards executive to his supporters.

It was gathered that the deal was not agreed upon by other concerned stakeholders who insisted that every camp should benefit according to the strength of their supporters in the party since it ought to take a democratic process.

Checks showed that the Omisore faction was bewildered by the outcome of the congress in some wards across the state and sought to use the machinery of the party in Abuja to upturn the outcome of the congress and ordered a fresh one.

However, a source within the party secretariat informed OSUN DEFENDER that the National Chairman of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi was said to have asked the embattled senator to go back to Osogbo and resolve their grievances within the structure in the state.

Similarly, the party gladiators in Ede, home of Senator Ademola Adeleke, have been on each other’s neck trying to outsmart one another in the bid to control the party machineries at both the ward and the local levels.

It was gathered that the Adeleke faction is bent on controlling the party structure 100 per cent, while both former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Adejare Bello and a loyalist of the late Senator Adeleke, Mr Atidade were fighting the family in a bid to retain their relevance in the party.

Feelers from the country home showed that some loyalists of the Adeleke family were of the view that Adejare had governorship ambition and if allowed to control the party structure in the town, he may grow beyond control, while some thought that the Atidade/Adejare camp should be compensated for their loyalty in ensuring the success of the party in the last Senatorial bye-election in the zone in which the family benefitted.

Also, in Ikirun the congress was successful in some wards while the Omisore/Adagunodo Faction crisis trickled into other wards as supporters of Adagunodo camp refused to concede the 30 per cent requested by the other faction insisting that each faction would have to pull from the pool according to their strength.

In Ayedaade, the former Minister of State for Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, a loyalist of Omisore, was also rendered irrelevant during the congress as none of his followers secured any of the party seats, a situation that result to the violence and subsequent cancellation of the congress in three wards.

Although the party is yet to conclude its ward congresses, it has also fixed dates for both it local and state congresses for this week.