We’ll Work With Obasanjo Faction – Ogun PDP

Senator Oladipo Odujinrin

Olusegun Obasanjo

Leaders of the newly recognised Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State have expressed their readiness to work with the members of the faction loyal to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The Obasanjo loyalists were last Friday removed as the leaders of the PDP in the state by the party’s National Working Committee.

 The PDP NWC had sacked the Obasanjo-backed executive of the party in Ogun State led by Senator Oladipo Odujinrin.

The Ogun PDP leaders however denied fighting a personal battle with Obasanjo, describing the former president as a father to all members of the party in the state.

Financier of the group, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, said this at a meeting of the party members held to review the recent decisions of the NWC in Ijebu-Igbo on Sunday.

Kashamu regretted what he called the use of the name of the former President by those he described as unscrupulous politicians in the state to commit atrocities and illegalities.

This, he said, had resulted in Obasanjo being misunderstood and his role being misconstrued, thus giving room for the wrong impression held by many about the former president.

Kashamu, who spoke with newsmen shortly after the meeting attended by many party stalwarts, including the newly-appointed Secretary of the PDP in the South West, Chief Pegba Otemolu; Chairman of the party in Ogun State, Chief Adebayo Dayo; and others, warned against the continued use of Obasanjo’s name by any group within the party for selfish objectives.

He said, “I was not fighting with our father, Baba Obasanjo. There is no way a child could fight his father but it is the people that surround him who did not know when I was fighting Otunba Gbenga Daniel because of Obasanjo that caused all the problems. We fought OGD to a standstill because of Obasanjo.

“We started this struggle since 2009 and by the time we finished with OGD, we took the structure to our father, Obasanjo. We thought that the struggle was over, but, we later discovered that some sycophants went to Obasanjo and cooked up a lot of untrue stories in order for them to pave the way for their personal interest.

“Baba Obasanjo gave me an order that we should go and vote Olurin. Baba Obasanjo is our father and he will always be our father; as soon as everything is okay, all of us will go to him and work under him.

“We will work through his instructions. He cannot throw all his troops away; we are his soldiers, his children. He has been a General and a Field Marshall but now, he cannot continue to be a Field Marshal. He has to hand over to some people.”

Earlier, Dayo had urged party members to return to their various wards and mobilise supporters for the purpose of winning the 2015 elections in the state.

The new chairman also appealed to members of the party in the other factions and the Peoples Party of Nigeria to return to the fold of the Ogun PDP.

“Unless those in the PPN, those with OGD and those with Baba work together, winning the election in the state in 2015 will be problematic,” he said.

Meanwhile, the national leadership of the PDP has written a letter to the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, asking him to order the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Okoye Ikemefuna, to cooperate fully with the Dayo-led executive.

The letter signed by the Acting Secretary of the PDP, Onwe Onwe, urged the police to allow the newly recognised Dayo-led state exco gain access to the party secretariat in Abeokuta.

February 19, 2013