PDP rejects power sharing arrangement by national leadership
Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state have rejected a power sharing arrangement formulated by the party’s national leadership to accommodate defecting members of the All Progressive Congress (APC), from the state.
State chairman of the PDP, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo said it is impossible for his team and members of the party to work with the incoming defectors who are mainly from the political structure loyal to Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
Two senators, Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara North) and Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara South) as well as the six members of the House of Representatives from the state were among federal legislators who defected on Tuesday from the APC. Saraki and Governor AbdulFattah Ahmed are expected to announce their own defection soon.
But Oyedepo, who spoke on the development on a radio programme in Ilorin, the state capital, said the national leadership of the PDP has set up a committee to interface between his group and the defectors. The first meeting is slated for next week, he said on the programme which was monitored by our reporter.
The PDP chairman, who said he had just returned from a meeting with PDP leaders in Abuja blamed the party’s national leadership for being allegedly insensitive to the political configuration in Kwara state and allowing themselves to be swayed by funding capacity of the defectors. To him, the option now before the leaders is to choose his group and the Sarakites.
His words: “We have not been opportune to sit down with the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the state governor, Alhaji AbdulFattah Ahmed even though I’m hearing several rumours that I have met with them and that they have offered me juicy positions.
Those are all lies; the Senate President despite his humongous wealth, does not yet have what it takes to buy me. He cannot ever buy me because he cannot buy my integrity. If my bank account is not fat, my integrity account is very fat.
“So they have not met with us but our national body said they have set up a committee to meet with the two sides next week and when that meeting comes up we are going to tell the national that we cannot accept the formula they have put down which is 60:40, 60 percent for a state defecting with the governor and 40 percent for the existing PDP members.
And if they said what of 50:50, or 40:60 or 30:70 or even 10:90, we shall not accept; we cannot accept any offer. Anything less than our not working together we cannot accept.
“So we will tell our national body to choose between us and them and I know that they will not choose us because we don’t have money but we are not worried. We will only know that an end has come to our journey and our relationship (in the PDP).
On the alternatives left for his group in the unfolding event, Oyedepo said they could remain in the PDP if the incoming group backtracks on meeting stiff opposition from within next week, or they could join the APC where they have some friend currently. The third option is to join a new party entirely, he said.
“We have directed our local government chapters to go and meet and let the people know what is happening and by Wednesday next week we shall meet to hold a mini referendum to decide what to do”, he said.
