The crisis rocking the Lagos chapter of the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, worsened at the weekend, with one factional chairman petitioning the police against the other.
Agboola Dominic, the incumbent, petitioned the Commissioner of Police, alleging that a claimant to the chairmanship of the party in the state, Segun Adewale, broke into the party’s secretariat, and called for his arrest.
The two factional chairmen have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over who is the authentic chairman of the party in the state and in control of the party’s secretariat.
Adewale, however, took control of the secretariat last week and is laying claim to the chairmanship position.
He alleged that the tenure of Dominic expired last December, and based on the 2016 state congress of the party, he was the legally recognised chairman.
However, Dominic in the petition to the CP in the state, a copy which was sent to BusinessDay at the weekend, alleged that Adewale was not a member of the party and was illegally parading himself as the chairman of PDP in the state.
The factional chairman added that Adewale’s group had on another occasion broken into the state secretariat of the party, urging the police to immediately arrest him to prevent further crisis in the state.
He said that the leadership of the party had tried to maintain peace by restraining its members from taking laws into their hands and would not be held liable for any crisis that erupts.
“Please, be reminded that this occasion is not the first that Segun Adewale, aka Aeroland, is breaking into our party Secretariat in this manner, which prompted our Party’s National leadership, in a petition to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police dated Tuesday April 16th 2019, to request that Segun Adewale, not being a member of our party, should be apprehended for breaking into our party secretariat,” he wrote.
“Having got information of Adewale’s impending invasion again today Friday 26th April, the party state chairman had earlier alerted both the police D.C. Ops and the DPO Ikeja division.
“Our party leaders have been hard-pressed restraining our party’s youths from rising to defend our secretariat and staff; in which case there would otherwise have been a breakdown of law and order, and possibly bloodshed.
“This, as responsible party leaders, we want to avoid at all cost; and therefore, we are imploring the Nigeria Police, Lagos State Command, to apprehend Segun Adewale in order to maintain the peace, and protect our properties and our law-abiding members.”
Iniobong Iwok
