Ogun PDP: Controversy trails primaries as Kashamu, Daniel’s groups trade words

Ogun PDP: Controversy trails primaries as Kashamu, Daniel’s groups trade words

The House of Assembly primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun
State was yesterday mired in controversy as rival groups continued to battle
over the control of the party’s structure, delegates and candidates.

While the party’s state executive committee loyal to a PDP chieftain, Prince
Buruji Kashamu, conducted the primaries, loyalists of former Governor
Gbenga Daniel and former House of Representatives Speaker, Dimeji
Bankole, boycotted the primaries, citing the directive of the party’s National
Working Committee.

There had been confusion Friday night over which delegates list to be used
for the primaries across the 26 state constituencies of the state. The
chairman of the PDP Electoral Panel for House of Assembly, Akeem
Animasaun, had told journalists that the primaries were postponed due to
the nonavailability of the delegates list and documents.

But at some of the designated centres in the local governments, the
exercise was conducted by the state party executive. Speaking with
reporters in Abeokuta yesterday, the state PDP Chairman, Chief Adebayo
Dayo, said the primaries were valid and peaceful across the state. Dayo
claimed that the state executive had the backing of the national leadership
of the party in going ahead to conduct the exercise.

“The members of the committee sent from Abuja were five; they cannot
cover the whole 20 local government areas. They will come to the party
secretariat to collate the results,” he stated. However, concerned elders of
the party in the state dissociated themselves from the state House of
Assembly primaries conducted by the Dayo-led executive. In a statement
signed on behalf of the concerned elders by a former House of
Representatives member, Dave Salako, and made available to reporters in
Abeokuta, they said the exercise was in defiance to the position of the PDP
National Secretariat in Abuja.

According to Salako, the primaries were being put on hold till another day to
enable the national leadership to address certain issues raised by party
stakeholders concerning the primaries. The PDP chieftain, who belongs to
the Bankole group fingered Kashamu and two members of the PDP NWC in
what he described as “illegal exercise in Ogun State.”

He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, no state chapter of the party has the
power to unilaterally conduct any congress or party’s primaries on its own.

Only the National Secretariat of the party has the power under the
constitution of the party and the guidelines for the primaries, it is the sole
duty of the National Secretariat of the party to send down its officials and
the materials to any state for such an exercise.

“In line with the guidelines of party, we were fully prepared for the primaries
earlier slated for today (yesterday) before we received news from Abuja
that the exercise has been put on hold. Based on this development, we
have to stand down and brief our members accordingly. That is where we
stand only for us to wake up today and be hearing another story that the
primaries is holding.

“The questions we are now asking are: who are the members of the
committee from the National Secretariat in charge of the exercise? Where
did they get the materials purportedly used for the exercise? At what time
did the National Secretariat directed that the exercise should hold?” Salako,
therefore, called on the party’s national leadership to sanction those
allegedly behind the “illegal exercise.”

“The wearisome aspect of it is that the National Auditor of the party, Alhaji
Adewole Adeyanju who should know better, was busy going round the state
blackmailing the National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and boasting that
he would go to court on Monday to legitimise the kangaroo primaries; this
is rubbish,” he added.