The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) South West Zonal Caretaker Committee has appealed to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) over the threat and insult by the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, over the Zonal congress.
In a statement on Sunday, by Secretary of the Caretaker Committee, Hon. Daisi Akintan, Governor Makinde’s threat that there will be dire consequences if the South-West zonal congress was not held on Saturday, April 10, 2021, was described as unfortunate and unbecoming of someone who used the party’s platform to become governor despite being inconsistent as a member of the party.
Rising from its meeting in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Saturday, seven out of the 12 members of the caretaker committee said the NWC members and other stakeholders of the party should not see Governor Makinde’s vituperation as representing the position of the PDP in the South-West.
Apart from the Zonal Secretary, other members who attended the meeting were Mrs Funmilayo Ogun, Hon. Ayobola Fadeyi- Awolowo, Prince Nekan Olateru- Olagbegi, Hon Wahab Owokoniran, Alhaji Mustapha Sikiru and Hon. Martins Olu- Abiloye.
The Caretaker Committee members said it was laughable that Governor Makinde could insinuate that members of the NWC were compromised just because they choose to obey the rule of law.
They said the governor lacked moral justification to threaten the PDP with defection to another party, having worked against the party in 2007, 2011 and 2015.
“We align ourselves with the position of the State Chairmen that the PDP existed before Governor Makinde returned from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) under which he contested the 2015 governorship election and if today or tomorrow, he opts out of the PDP, the party will remain.
“To us, the party is not an appendage of anyone, it is greater than all of us, including Governor Makinde.
“We therefore urge that the NWC should totally disregard his statement and take it as the price the party must pay for enthroning a man who was never committed to the party,” the Caretaker Committee members said.
Speaking further, they insisted that being in the majority of seven against five, their position that the South-West Congress must not hold in Ibadan, Oyo State because of security challenges, remained sacrosanct.
They noted that to further show that Ibadan is not safe for the congress, a few weeks ago, a prominent leader of the party in Oyo State, Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande, who is a former Majority Leader of the House of Reps had to raise the alarm, accusing a close ally of Governor Makinde of threatening her life.
