Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Reconciliation Committee chair Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson will take his peace overture to aggrieved national chairmanship aspirant Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, next week.
The Nation reported that it will be the beginning of the second round of reconciliation talks to stabilise the opposition party after its convention.
His visit to Adedoja, a former Special Duties minister, will herald the visit of the national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus to the former university don, in continuation of his reconciliatory moves.
Adedoja is challenging Secondus’ victory at the December 9 national convention held in Abuja, at a high court. He is claiming “unlawful exclusion” because of the misspelling of his name on the ballot.
His name was spelt as Taoheed Oladoja (instead of Adedoja). He said his protest to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the convention committee chairman was brushed aside.
Adedoja scored zero in the ballot won by Secondus.
A source close to Dickson said Adedoja is also aggrieved that before he headed for the court, the new party leadership did not reach out to him for ventilation of grievances and reconciliation.
According to the source, the former minister instituted the suit to draw home the point that every member of the party is important in the post-convention period.
He said: “It is painful that, after the convention, a prominent member of the party and a national chairmanship aspirant decided to go to the court. Thus, the scope of assignment of the committee headed by Governor Dickson widened.
“Prof. Adedoja did not believe that the race was a do-or-die affair. But, we had that he went to court because after he complained that his name was omitted on the ballot, no effort was made to reach out to him to pacify him after the convention.”
On why the Reconciliation Committee had not visited him, the source added: “The committee has been working after the convention. Governor Dickson and his team have visited many people, including Chief Bode George and Chief Jimi Agbaje in Lagos. There was no media coverage because the committee thought that you can only report the success of the reconciliation and not the visits.
“But, next week, the reconciliation committee will visit Prof. Adedoja. Governor Dickson holds him and every chieftain in high esteem. The committee would have visited him, but it had to have a break because of the Christmas and new year activities.”
