Ogun PDP crisis: My call for reconciliation not an act of cowardice – Kashamu

Senator Buruji Kashamu at the weekend disclosed that his call for reconciliation with aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state was not an act of cowardice.

Kashamu said his call for reconciliation in the PDP was in the spirit of sportsmanship and a direct response to the wish of the people.

The senator, who said this in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, stressed that, the reconciliation was for the interest of all members of the party in the state to become united.

While maintaining that, the party was not running a one-man show, but fighting for the interest of all its members in the state, Kashamu reiterated that members of the party in the state are ready for genuine reconciliation.

His words: ” My call for genuine reconciliation is not an act of cowardice or a sign of weakness. Rather, it is in the spirit of sportsmanship and a direct response to the wish of the people, especially the grassroots.

“We have always propagated the need for mutual respect and cooperation. If anyone thinks otherwise, we cannot force them to go against their wish.

“For, as it it said, you can only lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink. We had thought (and still think) it would be in the overall interest of our party and the people to come together and become a united and formidable force.

“And for the uninformed who talk of someone running a one-man show, they are obviously living in denial of our existential political reality. An individual does not and cannot make up a political party or group.

“If Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye is not there, Otunba Gbenga Daniel is not there and Dimeji Bankole is not there, at some point in time someone has to provide the needed leadership or serve as the rallying point per time.

“Nonetheless, such a person cannot do it all alone. He must do it with the support of other leaders, elders and stakeholders at the ward, local government and state levels.

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“The allegation of someone running a one-man show is without substance. It is a sentiment often thrown up by those who either want to push through their own interest or literally take over the driver’s seat. They should stop pulling the wool over our eyes. No one is a fool.”

He described the Adebutu minority faction as the hallmark of the perennially unsuccessful strategists, who believe that they have a birthright to control the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state.

The former legislator emphasised that there is no Adebutu group in the Ogun state PDP, asserting that “once a group of members decides to abandon their party and join forces with a party opposing the PDP, they have effectively defected and lost their membership of the party.”

Kashamu also cleared the notion that there is an order made by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court stopping the conduct of PDP congresses in the state and that the congresses conducted will be nullified for being conducted in contempt of that order.