The national leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party has summoned all the chairmanship aspirants of the
party to an emergency meeting.....
The Chairman of the National Caretaker
Committee of the party, Ahmed Makarfi, called the meeting on behalf of
members of the committee.
The meeting is scheduled to hold at the
party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday before the National
Executive Committee meeting will hold at the same venue.
Our correspondent gathered that the
meeting became necessary following intelligence reports said to have
been received by the party that some aspirants were planning to take the
party to court before the convention.
The national convention is scheduled to hold in Abuja on December 9, where national officers are to be elected.
Those expected at the meeting are a
former Minister of Special Duties, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja; a former
Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; a former Deputy National
Chairman of the party, Chief Bode George, and a former acting National
Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus.
Also expected at the meeting are a
former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; a former PDP
governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje; and Chief
Raymond Dokpesi.
It is not clear if a former governor of Oyo State, Chief Rashidi Ladoja, will be in attendance.
Ladoja, who just returned to the party after eight years, is said to be nursing the ambition of leading the party as well.
However, the constitution of the party stipulates that he will need a waiver to achieve such aim.
The leadership of the party was said to
have gathered that some of the aspirants were also being sponsored by
presidential aspirants from other political parties, especially the
ruling All Progressives Congress.
A member of the Board of Trustees of the
party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that
investigations showed that some of the aspirants from the APC were
investing in the national chairmanship aspirants.
He said, “We know that some of the
aspirants are being funded by the APC. We want to let them know that
the PDP will not allow anyone to destabilise it again. We have learnt
our lessons.
“We are aware that some are planning to
take us to court before the convention or are even planning to hold a
parallel convention like they did during the botched national convention
that we had in Port Harcourt, Rivers State the other time. We don’t
want that to happen this time round.”
The meeting is expected to agree on a code of conduct for the aspirants
Makarfi, in the notice sent to the
aspirants, said that they were to meet with members of the National
Caretaker Committee of the party.
Dokpesi, Adedoja, Secondus and
Adeniran told our correspondent on Sunday evening that they had
received the invitation and promised to be at the meeting.
Dokpesi said Daniel had also informed him about his desire to be present.
He however said that there was no iota
of truth in the rumour making the rounds that the position had been
zoned to the South-West.
Secondus also said that he would be at
the meeting, but called on other aspirants to take the interest of the
party as paramount in their campaign.
“At the end of the day, the PDP will
remain. We need to work together and make it stronger than it was even
in 2015,” he said, adding that “none of us the aspirants, is bigger than
the PDP.”
Adedoja also said he would be at the
meeting, but denied the insinuation that it could be used to ask some
aspirants to step down.
The former provost of the College of
Education, Oyo, Oyo State, said, “I will be at the meeting. I was
invited. But we don’t have the agenda yet. But nobody can use the
meeting to reduce the number of the aspirants. Allow us all to go to
the convention ground, and allow the delegates to pick from among us. “
In his reaction, Adeniran also said the meeting would not discuss the possibility of asking aspirants to step down.
Adeniran, who spoke through his Media Aide, Mr. Taiwo Akeju, said he won’t encourage any of the aspirants to step down.
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