A faction in Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, supported by Senator Ademola Adeleke, on Thursday, staged a peaceful protest in Osogbo over Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde’s alleged meddling in the affairs of the party.
The protesters bearing placards with inscriptions such as ‘Seyi Makinde please keep off affairs of Osun PDP,’ ‘Give NWC breathing space to run affairs of the party,’ among others, were led to the party-state secretariat by ex-chairman, Irewole local government, Dr. Lere Oyewumi.
Chanting songs to warn Makinde against meddling in the affairs of the party, the protesters said they embarked on the protest after the committee sent to conduct congress by the national secretariat refused to go ahead with the exercise.
Speaking with newsmen, Oyewumi said when members of the committee were asked for the reason the Congress would not go ahead, they claimed instruction had come from the PDP national secretariat that the exercise should be suspended because of a court case.
He warned that Makinde and Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, should not be allowed to act on matters relating to Osun PDP, saying from all indications, Oyo governor was behind the sudden stoppage of the party’s congress.
He later presented a letter of complaint addressed to the National Working Committee of the party to the chairman of the faction, Mr. Sunday Bisi.
He said, “Yesterday supposed to be our congress and they had already appointed 93 people to conduct the congress across the local government areas in Osun state. The committee members arrived on Wednesday and five leaders who ought to lead the congress invited us to a hotel they lodged, they said they can’t continue with the congress because they receive a court injunction.
“When we linked up with Abuja, we discovered that the NWC did not order for the cancelation of the congress. Later in the day, we learnt that Abuja stakeholders had met and postponed the congress officially. We want to believe that there are some forces within the PDP who are not interested in us winning this election in Osun state.
“Unfortunately, they are leaders of the party including a governor. We demand that all the people they sent here to conduct the congress, none of them should come back here on Sunday. The NWC must appoint people who are fair to all stakeholders.
“We learnt that they want to bring the Governor of Adamawa here, that is even worse because when we went for national convention, Fintiri was the convention chairman, what they did to us should not be allowed here. They waylaid us for almost five hours before our national delegate could be allowed to vote.
“What happened yesterday, we suspect the hand of Seyi Makinde. The way he is acting to us seems he is not interested in our progress. As a governor who is close to us, he supposes to be helping us, but he is not.”
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