PDP Crisis: Lagos PDP Dumps Fayose, Pledges Allegiance To Gov. Makinde |The Source

By Akinwale Kasali

The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, South West Geo Political Zone over leadership struggle of the Party has escalated and become more messier, with the Lagos State PDP pledging allegiance to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State as its Leader.

The Lagos State chapter of the PDP pledged its unalloyed loyalty and allegiance to Governor Makinde at the stakeholders’ meeting held at Government house, Ibadan, the state capital, over the weekend.

Governor Makinde and former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose have been entangled in cold war over the control of the PDP structure in the south-west zone.

In a statement, Taiwo Adisa, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde said the Lagos PDP leaders sought audience with the governor to prevail on him to continue leading the party in the South West Zone.

He stressed that Dayo Ogungbenro, the caretaker zonal chairman of the party, endorsed Makinde as the leader of the Party in the zone, in an unanimous decision.

Adisa quoted Waliu Hassan, deputy chairman of the PDP in Lagos, and Rita Orji, former house of representatives member, as saying Makinde should continue leading the party in the region.

The party chieftains said members of the PDP in Lagos have agreed to sheath their swords and work towards the progress of the party and to ,also, ensure that the party wrestles  power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) of come 2023.

“The purpose of today’s meeting, to be very precise, is to thank Governor Makinde for standing by the party and to pledge total loyalty to his leadership of the South-West. No more, no less.

“We can tell you that the governor does not want anything from us. He, as the Chief Security Officer of Oyo State, needs nothing from the party, rather we are the ones who came all the way from Lagos, to plead with him to keep leading the party.

“We resolved to, irrespective of any rancor, move the party forward and we will ensure that the party takes its better seat in 2023.

“We did not come here to discuss who takes anything for zonal congress. The congress will soon come up and for all we care, we have come to restate our commitment to our own governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, and we stand by him anywhere he is going on the issue of the South West.”

Adisa said the meeting was attended by the full structure of the Lagos PDP executives, and that 12 executive council members were present out of 19 as well as the 17 non-working committee members of the party.