PDP CHAIRMANSHIP: S’West chieftains threaten to dump party"

Stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South West have threatened to leave the party if the zone is not allowed to produce the next national chairman of the party. 

This came as former National Deputy National chairman of the party, Chief Olabode George called on members of the party to conduct themselves peacefully during the PDP congresses scheduled to begin this weekend. Former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Doyin Okupe, who made the position known after party leaders in the zone met in Ikoyi, Lagos, said the decision was taken on how to respond if the zone is not allowed to produce the chairman at the party’s national convention next month. Okupe said “We took a firm position which was that we will dump the party en masse if we get robbed again at this year’s convention.” 

PDP leaders present at the meeting included a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Olabode George; former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Olajumoke Akinjide; a former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Bode Olajumoke, governorship candidate of the party in Lagos in the 2015 election, Jimi Agbaje and a former governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel. While he appealed to Governor Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom State to resist pressure from politicians and do the right thing by zoning the PDP chairmanship position to the Southwest, Okupe said Governor Udom’s final decision would determine if history would judge him kindly or as a villain. 

He said “Governor Udom is a young gentleman whom I believe still has a long future in Nigerian politics ahead of him. It will be unfortunate if he allowed himself to be used to relegate Yoruba people within the affairs of the party once again. The PDP has done a lot of wrongs to the Yoruba people and our position now is that they should start making amends by allowing us to present the next chairman.” He argued that since the PDP had already zoned its presidential ticket in 2019 to the north, zoning the party’s topmost position to the same zone would amount to a “robbery and betrayal’ on the part of the party’s leadership.