13th December, 2010
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed fears that the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State may lose the state to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in 2011, if members continue to fight among themselves.
Speaking at a reconciliation meeting held at his Abeokuta hilltop residence, Obasanjo told party faithful that the current internal wranglings may spell doom for the PDP in the state during the 2011 elections.
“I want to appeal to all of us to sheathe our swords. The current political wrangling in our party, if not checked will affect us in the next election and we may lose to the opposition.
“The opposition is doing everything possible to capture the state. And if we fail to reconcile now and settle our disput, we may lose this state to the opposition party. Not because we don’t have the strength or the supporters, but because of our internal crisis,†Obasanjo reportedly told the select gathering including Governor Gbenga Daniel and the Minister of Commerce and Industries, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye.
Before he left the meeting, Obasanjo, it was gathered, directed Martins-Kuye and Governor Daniel to take over proceedings at the meeting.
A legislator who attendend the meeting told P.M.NEWS that after the exit of Obasanjo, both Martins-Kuye and Daniel went into a closed door session for about an hour.
They emerged from the meeting to set up a seven-man reconciliation committee to work out the modalities to end the internal crisis rocking the party.
Senator Ayo Otegbola was appointed the head of the committee. Members include the former Minister of Mines and Power, Chief Sharafadeen Tunji Isola, Apostle Dave Salako, Hon. Tunji Egbetokun, Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Soyemi Coker, the minority speaker, Chief J. B. Fadipe and Hon. John Obafemi, Chairman, Remo North Local Government.
The committee was given a week to submit its report.
The source disclosed that Governor Daniel showed a sense of remorse at the meeting and called on his supporters to bury the hatchet.
Said the source: “With what transpired at the reconciliation meeting, it may well signal the end of the crisis within the PDP in Ogun State. All parties to the crisis can now see the handwriting on the wall and that the prolonged crisis may give the opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the upper hand in the forthcoming elections. To prevent our party’s defeat in the next elections, it was agreed that the feuding parties must reconcile now.â€
But addressing journalists in Benin City, Edo State, when he paid a condolence visit to his Edo State counterpart, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, on the death of his wife, Daniel dismissed claims by the ACN that it was in a better stead to capture Ogun state.
Daniel boasted that the PDP was on the ground in the state because it has the upper hand on the field. He dismissed ACN claims with a wave of the hand, stressing that what happened in Edo, Ekiti and Osun cannot happen in Ogun.
—Biodun Onafuye
