15th March, 2013
The Ogun State faction of the Peoples Democratic Party which former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo belongs, has completely lost out to the Engr. Bayo Dayo-led executive council of the party as the latter took over the secretariat of the party Thursday.
The secretariat had been shut since last year following a violent clash between members of the factions that resulted in the loss of lives.
The Dayo-led faction, which has Prince Buruj Kashamu as its financier, was given the nod by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party mid February to take over the secretariat, having obeyed the court ruling that nullified the election of the ousted executive.
The party secretariat was locked up by the police last year after a brutal fight between the Senator Dipo Odujinrin faction which is loyal to Obasanjo and the Kashamu faction.
Addressing newsmen at the party’s secretariat along IBB Bolueavard, opposite NNPC Mega Station, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, Ogun State Thursday evening, the factional Chairman, Engr. Bayo Dayo stated that the take-over took so long because the state Police Commissioner, Ikemefuna Okoye said he had to get order from the Force Headquarters, Abuja before he could allow them to occupy the secretariat.
The former council chairman explained that the secretariat was opened for them by the police with the directives from Okoye who also provided them with enough security to forestall any attack.
Responding to a question from our correspondent about reconciling aggrieved party members, especially the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, he said: “former President Olusegun Obasanjo is a national leader of the party and does not have any faction. It was one the former governorship candidates of the party in the state, Gen. Tunji Olurin (retd.) and Bode Mustapha who were drawing him into factional politicking.
“He is our father and an international figure. He is the leader of all of us in the state. We will soon pay him a visit. In Yorubaland, we do say that if you are fighting with an elderly person, whether you are right or wrong, you have to apologise to him. We are going to apologise to him in the interest of our party and we believe Baba will embrace us. We need to come together for us to win the elections. The election will be held by 2015 and if we don’t come together as one big family and cooperate among ourselves, we will not achieve our goal and our goal is to win all the elections, come 2015. If we fail to win, why are we then a party?”
The new Chairman, however, declared that the newly formed PDP Governors’ Forum does not have power to revert the decision of the NWC, but rather was saddled with the sole responsibility of fostering unity among aggrieved members of the party.
Taking journalists round the premises, Dayo expressed dismay about the looting of the secretariat, saying, “the act has gone beyond looting, but stealing.”
—Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta