By Dansu Peter
A top-level source, according THEWILL Newspaper confided that the former Vice-President schemed this as part of his strategies to to canvas support of the zone ahead of the Presidential election by 2023.
Our source said it was not clear whether he was deferring to the Wike group that has become too assertive for comfort in the party or playing brinkmanship, following the hazy political signals coming from the South-East where the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has decided to fish for defectors from the PDP amid crises fueled by separatists and secessionists.
The PDP, Nigeria's strongest opposition party is believed to have resolved to zone its party Presidential candidate to the North.
The PDP, Nigeria's strongest opposition party is believed to have resolved to zone its party Presidential candidate to the North.
Meanwhile, Our source, THEWILL has also reported that the PDP has resolved and unanimously settled for a former Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as the consensus candidate for the position of National Chairman, ahead of the main opposition’s October 30 National Convention.
According to the report, Oyinlola was chosen after key interest groups in the party, including state governors agreed to sink their differences, following negotiations and the politician’s national appeal. His emergence came on the heels of a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC} of the party held in Abuja last Thursday, which effectively sealed the fate of the embattled Secondus.
Recall that six days earlier, a High Court in Kebbi State had vacated an earlier relief granted Secondus, which had reinstated him as party chairman.
The judge, Nusirat Umar, said the counsel to Secondus intentionally hid crucial facts on the matter, which led her to grant the exparte order in a suit marked KB/AC/M.170/2021 that restored him as party chairman.
In cancelling her earlier ruling, she said, “I also agree that the claimants’/ respondents’ counsel failed to disclose to the court the true subject matter of this matter, namely the suspension of the first defendant, Prince Uche Secondus, from the membership of the second defendant (Peoples Democratic Party) by Ward 5, Ikuru Town in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers state.”
While that ward suspension order is still a subject of litigation, party stakeholders agreed to anoint Oyinlola in order to end the two-month long crisis that had pitched Secondus against a powerful group backed by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
Oyinlola, a staunch ally of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, was chosen by the PDP Governors to lead the party into the 2023 general elections.
Having found his way back to the party after a standoff, during which he publicly tore his registration card in a fit of temper in the heat of the anti-President Goodluck Jonathan campaign in 2015 and tried without success to form a Pan-Nigerian political group in 2018 before burying his quarrel with his erstwhile deputy, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and supported his 2019 presidential bid, Obasanjo, with Oyinlola’s emergence, will become even more powerful within the party. Atiku, who is still eyeing the 2023 presidency, cherishes his reconciliation with his former boss and for that reason, readily supported Oyinlola’s candidacy.
Oyinlola, a retired Brigadier-General, also enjoys the support of former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, and Lieutenant-General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, a former military top brass, as well as former President of the Senate, David Mark.
According to sources in the party, Oyinlola’s wide support base would make it hard for any one group within the party to control him. This consensus of support has put him ahead of other aspirants for the position of national chairman, namely a former governorship candidate of the party in the recent Ondo State governorship election, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN and a former military governor of old Ondo State, Chief Bode George. “Oyinlola is the candidate to beat for the position of national chairman, come October 30,”said a competent party source.
Credit: THEWILL
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