PDP holds peaceful congresses

By Daud Olatunji, Marie-Therese Nanlong, Rotimi Ojomoyela, John Mkom & Ochuko Akuopha The ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, conducted in most states of the country, yesterday, passed  uneventfully with the notable exception of Ogun and Osun states. In Ogun, party members and regulatory electoral institutions split into three factions across the 236 wards in the state.

The ward congresses are the first steps in the election of principal officers of the PDP at the ward, local government, state, zonal and national levels. The congresses, however, did not hold in some states like Edo, Kogi and Bayelsa where congresses were earlier held. In most states, the election went with ease and, in some cases, leaders of the party met in caucuses to  adopt  pre-selected officials to be elected as party executives and delegates to the elections in the upper echelons of the party. In Kano, the exercise was suspended to allow the party concentrate on the bye-election into a seat in the state House of Assembly, the party’s publicity secretary,    Musa Dan’Birni, said. In Ogun, consensus was, however, difficult to achieve as party members converged in three different locations in each of the 236 wards according to the loyalties of the members. The principal factional groupings were around Senator Buruji Kashamu, former Speaker Demiji Bankole and Rep Ladi Adebutu, a member of the House of Representatives. Kashamu Remarkably, Sunday Vanguard gathered that all the factions had officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Department of State Services, DSS, and national party officials in attendance. The Kashamu group, which has the state Chairman and Secretary of the party, Bayo Dayo and Semiu Sodipo respectively, as members, was, however, accused of    holding members of the 11-man Congress Committee hostage in the senator’s Ijebu-Igbo house. The Adebutu and Bankole factions further claimed that Kashamu and members of the Congress Committee compiled the names of the wards leaders at the senator’s residence. The Chairman of the committee,    Mohammed El-Yakubu, however, denied the allegations and claimed that, as of the time journalists encountered him midway into the congress, he had not set eyes on Kashamu . But speaking with   newsmen,    the party’s former Organising Secretary, Folasade Filani, said the congresses held by her group, which is believed to be loyal to Adebutu, was the valid exercise. A former member of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Johnson Olu-Fatoki, who is loyal to the Bankole, as evidence of the legitimacy of the exercise conducted by his group, said his faction held the exercise at the venues designated by the PDP national leadership. In  Lagos, the exercise passed  smoothly in the 245 wards of the state with no reports of violence. However, in Igando Ward F, Alimosho Local Government Area of the state, some party members faulted the process, alleging it was manipulated to favour some members. The exercise also passed  smoothly in Delta State. Sunday Vanguard monitored the exercise in   Oshimili North and South, Aniocha North and South, Ika North East and Ika South,   Isoko North and  South, Ughelli North and South, Ndokwa East and West, Ukwani, Sapele, Okpe, Ethiope East and West and Patani Local Government Area, and found that the exercise was devoid of violence. The congresses in the 27 local government areas of Jigawa State were equally peaceful, a claim that was buttressed by Alhaji Aminu Nuhu Jahun, Deputy Vice Chairman of the PDP, who told newsmen that the exercise was hitch-free in his area Jahun and other places he had received reports from. The exercise was marred by protest in Osun State, championed by, among others, a candidate for state Chairman, Dr Bayo Faforiji, who demanded outright cancellation of the exercise. Supporters Faforiji had stormed the state secretariat of the party in protest of alleged non-release of forms to those believed to be loyal to him by the outgoing state Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa. But debunking the claim, another chairmanship candidate, Hon Soji Adagunodo, said forms paid for by his camp were given to them and dismissed the protest as “mere distraction”. The congresses were also peaceful in the 177 wards in Ekiti and in the 319 wards of Rivers State. Deputy Publicity secretary of the party in Rivers State, Mr Sam Wonosike said people voted persons of their choice into the various positions. There was massive turn out of PDP members in Plateau State despite the restriction of movement for the environmental sanitation exercise. The exercise was conducted peacefully in most parts of the state. Similarly, in most parts of Taraba State, the exercise passed smoothly with consensus mostly the order of the day.