The ongoing happenings in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Oyo State, has been described as a situation whereby the PDP actually joined Accord Party and not the other way round.
A chieftain of the party in the State, Alhaji Adebisi Olopoenia, while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday posited that the current situation in the party portrays the fact that the Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State actually joined the Accord going by the outcome of the statte congress.
He stated that; “As far as I am concerned, it is actually the PDP that joined the Accord party during the process of bringing together of members of the PDP who had gone to form and joined other political parties in the wake of the 2015 general elections.
“Let us take for instance, out of the 126 wards in 11 local governments in Ibadan, 79 people who joined the PDP from Accord party occupy the position of ward chairmen, while the remaining 47 were shared among other members of the PDP and other members who returned from SDP, Labour and AD. And also as a matter of fact and for clarity purpose, it is only Sharafadeen Alli that returned to the PDP from Labour party.
“The sad part of the story is that Accord is still functioning in the state despite the fact that their leader had announced his return to the PDP. To the best of my knowledge, the SDP has collapsed its structures in Oyo State and is fully with the PDP. I wonder why such people should not be considered for more roles in the running of the party”.
Olopoenia further said that:”Out of the 27 positions at the state level, The position of the Deputy Chairman, Public Relations Officer, Secretary, Youth Leader and some other key positions were given to the Ladoja camp. The post of the Chairman was given to a man from the camp of Jumoke Akinjide who to the best of my knowledge is still loyal to Senator Rashidi Ladoja. Senator Ayo Adeseun who is also loyal to Senator Rashidi Ladoja produced the Woman Leader and the Financial secretary. The Ladoja camp also produced the Organising Secretary and the Treasurer.
Let me also state categorically here that the likes of Jumoke Akinjide and Senator Ayo Adeseun are still working for Accord Party as they did in the 2015 general elections.
He is however, of the opinion that if the outcome of the state congress is not reviewed and allow for a fair treatment of all members across board, there is the likelihood of a mass exodus of members from the party and this he said will be unpalatable for the party as this will no doubt have a great negative impact on the performance of the party in the 2019 general elections in Oyo State.
Olopoenia, therefore, called on the national Chairman of party, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, to please as a matter of urgency wade into the matter. “I strongly believe in his managerial quality to resolve matters amicably and this one I want to also believe will not be an exception”.
