The drama at the headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ado-Ekiti continued on Monday, as aggrieved members opposed to consensus arrangement stormed the secretariat and held some officials of the party hostage. This is coming as the whereabouts of the embattled chairman of the party, Makanjuola Ogundipe, who was reportedly suspended by the State Working Committee (SWC) is still unknown. The situation worsened, as the deputy chairman, Femi Bamisile, who is billed to take over in acting capacity is yet to accept the offer. Some members of the State Executive Council had reportedly converged on the PDP office in the early hours of Monday to discuss the crisis rocking the party with a view to resolving it but were held up by the protesters. Among those that were held hostage were Bamisile, the legal adviser, Kola Adefemi and four other members of the executive. Bamisile, in a telephone interview, said the six SWC members were at a meeting when the protesters stormed the secretariat, confirming that it was difficult for them to move out for fear of possible attack. The protesters, who carried placards with several inscriptions, denouncing the proposed consensus arrangement and chairman of the party. They also decried the leadership style of Ogundipe, accusing him of leading the party to perdition. Led by Akinniyi Sunday, the protesters said they wanted to register their disapproval of the consensus option being proposed for picking the party’s governorship candidate. Akinniyi declared the party risked losing the governorship election in 2014 if it failed to listen to the advise of the protesters on the matter. Akinniyi, a former secretary of Ikere Local Government, said “The chairman, Chief Makajuola Ogundipe, must be aware that PDP is not for sale. He cannot collect bribe from anybody and impose him on us. “We want a candidate that can win election; a candidate that is popular among the grassroots and the masses. We are being guided by history. Where PDP did not do primaries, we lost and we don’t want such to happen in Ekiti and that is why we are requesting for primary and anything outside this is unacceptableâ€.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:39:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015