• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Leadership crisis looms in Lagos State PDP

Leadership crisis looms in Lagos State PDP

 Just weeks after the 2019 general elections, a major crisis is looming in the Lagos State chapter of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). This is as two chieftains of the party battle for the chairmanship position in the state.

Agboola Dominic, who currently occupies the position, was chosen by leaders of the party after the defection of the former state chairman, Moshood Salvador, to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) last November.

Dominic had benefited from a power sharing formula between the Bode George-led faction and Aduke Maina faction in the state.

While the  Bode George faction took 65 percent of the executives’ positions including the chairmanship, the Aduke Maina faction took 35 percent of the positions.

But Segun Adewale, popularly known as (AEROLANE), described the arrangement that brought Dominic into power as illegal and not line with the party’s constitution, stressing that he was not duly elected by members of the party but was imposed by Bode George.

Adewale who spoke in an interview with BusinessDay, Monday, stressed that after the resignation of Salvador, he was supposed to assume the chairmanship position because he was duly elected chairman of the party in the 2016 state congress.

“I am the Lagos State PDP chairman based on the 2016 state congress of the party where I was elected as a member of the Alimodu Sherriff faction in Lagos State. After Salvador left the party I am supposed to assume the position, but because I was in Ekiti State and time had gone I did not intervene,” Adewale said.

He said the party had retrogressed in recent times, stressing that PDP’s poor performance in the just-concluded general election in Lagos State was because of the inability of Dominic and Bode George to lead the party.

“Bode George picked Dominic, he was never elected by any party member in a state congress and that tenure expired recently. Anybody saying that I am not a member of the PDP is confused,” Adewale said.

“The Southwest PDP chairman is confused.  When Bode George took us to contest the last Local Government election under labour party, what happened? Are those members still not back in PDP?”

He contended that what was doing for the part was not a person decision.  “Look at the way our party performed in Lagos State in the general elections, I remain the chairman except the national chairman say I should step down” Adewale added.

But the South-South leader of the party in the state, Sunday Ekanem, faulted Adewale’s claims, noting that he had been sponsored to destabilise the party and was never elected in any legal congress in the state.

Ekanem said Adewale was not a member of the party after defecting to the Action Democratic Party (ADP) to contest for the gubernatorial election in Ekiti state.

“In which congress was Adewale elected Lagos State PDP chairman? What he is doing, don’t you think he is being sponsored? You went to contest for Governor in Ekiti State and now you are back claiming to be chairman of Lagos PDP,” he noted.

“That is not how a party is run. Dominic is the one recognised by the Southwest and national leadership of the party,” Ekanem said.

But a chieftain of the party in the state and former governorship aspirant, Femi Careena, called for caution from both leaders, stressing that the interest of the party must always come first.

“Segun Adwale is a member of the party. You don’t push him aside; he is a chieftain of the party, and he worked for this party and has been working; I think the party should address whatever issues he is talking about. I am a leader I don’t want to talk more on this,” Careena said.

Efforst to reach Agboola Dominic, and the Publicity Secretary of the party, Taofeek Gani, however, proved abortive , as several phone calls to their mobile lines were not answered