20th April, 2012
The five year old rift between Chief Olabode George and former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro is believed to have finally ended.
The feud, Political Platform reliably gathered, was a fallout of Obanikoro’s loss in the 2007 governorship elections in the state.
In the ensuing buck-passing between the two party chieftains, they cast aspersions on each other and even shunned each other at public functions
Recently, at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra, Ghana, the former chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, strolled majestically into the venue of a special valedictory programme organised in honour of Obanikoro as part of the activities to wind up his tenure as Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana.
Speaking at the event, George confirmed an end to the rift in his speech, showering encomium on Obanikoro and even hinting that he’s his candidate for the 2015 governorship election.
Similarly, the southwest zonal executive of the party has waded into the crisis rocking its Lagos State chapter by reconciling all the factions in the party.
Leading other executives to Lagos on a reconciliation mission recently, the new southwest Vice chairman of the party, Engineer Segun Oni, appealed to the factions to work together in the interest of the party.
Oni, who first met with some of the factions at the residence of Alhaji Shitta Bey with Ogunlewe, in attendance, also held a meeting with some other factions at the party’s secretariat at GRA, Ikeja.
Though the reconciliation talks took place at different venues, party members converged at the secretariat to see the outcome of the meetings.
While speaking at the party’s secretariat, Oni urged all aggrieved members to come back to the table for resolution, saying the party in the zone was going through transformation that would position it for 2015 elections.
According to him, “the processes must improve in the party, we must change our ways and re-organise completely for 2015. They should withdraw all cases against the party in the courts as there will not be litigation in the party again.”
While prohibiting members from instituting legal actions against the party, he enjoined them to desist from media war, saying such acts would be considered an aggression against the PDP.
He called on the factions to team up and form a strong leadership at the local government level in the state so that the party could win Lagos and reclaim Southwest.
Engineer Oni and some party leaders expressed optimism that the new executives would restore normalcy to the party and ensure that the PDP wrests power from the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.
—Yisa Jamiu