ABUJA—FEUDING factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State were yesterday locked in a closed-door reconciliation talk presided over by the National Chairman of the party, Chief Audu Ogbeh and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, aimed at ending what Ogbeh described as “a family problem”.
There were early signals yesterday that the involvement of Chief Anenih in the reconciliation talk would produce lasting solutions to the crisis, given his decisive approach to crisis management. He was said to have evolved a tentative peace agreement at the Abuja meeting, which was designed to bring about fresh nominations of Chairman and Secretary of the State Chapter of the party.
It was gathered that by the term of agreement, which was to have been perfected and officially endorsed at the Ibadan meeting, which was not decisively managed by Chief Ogbeh, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and Alhaji Yekini Adeojo were to be given the opportunity of nominating a new Chairman and a new Secretary of the party respectively, having expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the incumbents whom they nominated in the first instance.
Yesterday’s meeting, which came on the heels of two previous inconclusive meetings, one at Sheraton, Abuja and the other at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, started about 3 p.m. at the National Secretariat of the party, which had, before the arrival of the factions, been cordoned off by no fewer than sixty anti-riot policemen. The policemen were drafted to ensure that political thugs were not used to disrupt the meeting.
Movements in and around the premises of the National Secretariat were restricted. Visitors to the secretariat building, which also houses a Manny Bank branch, were thoroughly frisked at the gate before they were allowed in.
Adedibu and his team, among them Senator Lekan Balogun, arrived about 1 p.m., followed by Governor Rasheed Ladoja with his men, among them the State Chairman of the party, Chief Michael Adegbite, who came in at about 2.35 p.m.
Inside one of the conference rooms of the secretariat on the second floor, Chief Ogbeh told the warlords- Governor Ladoja, strongman of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Adedibu and defeated Governorship aspirant, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo that the party could no longer tolerate the quarrels, saying that they were absolutely unnecessary.
According to him: “We did not conclude our previous meetings and that was why we asked you to come. So, you are welcome to Abuja. We urge you to speak frankly and politely, I repeat, politely because we are dealing with a family problem.
“It is our party; we all joined voluntarily; nobody was forced to join. So, there is absolute need for us in whatever we do, say or think to bear in mind that the whole point is to have a strong, united party and the reason why we keep calling you is that we believe that among all of us, we can achieve peace.
“We also want to make sure that these problems and distractions are not what Nigerians elected us for. The rest of society can only laugh at us if we continue to allow these distractions to keep taking our attention from the problems of governance, of service delivery, growth in the economy, employment for our youths and health services.
“Once again, I want to appeal to all of you; these quarrels are absolutely unnecessary and we must bring them to an end. The people did not elect us to quarrel or to fight but to govern. And if we begin to quarrel or to fight, we are only letting ourselves down”.
Recall that the crisis in Oyo boiled over due to the irreconcilable differences between Governor Ladoja and his estranged political godfather, Adedibu over the method of running the party in the state and distributing patronage.
Ladoja, as learnt, has been building a new bloc of loyalists within the party and in the state to the exclusion of Adedibu, a development, which the latter feared was capable of rendering him politically irrelevant in the scheme of things in the state.
The State Chairman, Chief Adegbite, whom Adedibu installed had, as learnt, shifted loyalty to Governor Ladoja just as the Secretary of the party in the State, whom the former Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party, Alhaji Adeojo nominated has also reportedly shifted loyalty to the Governor. The duo, as learnt, resorted to the extreme responses, which have resulted in the lingering crisis in the State.
There were feelers yesterday that the meeting might agree on the terms of settlement agreed to at the first Sheraton, Abuja meeting to the effect that the duo of Adedibu and Adeojo should be allowed to nominate fresh Chairman and Secretary to replace their nominees, whom they alleged had shifted loyalty to the governor. This, as learnt, is aimed at accommodating their interest in the party in the State.
The idea of fresh nomination as against fresh election was said to have been agreed to as it would not be acrimonious and further worsen the crisis.
Present at yesterday’s meeting in Abuja, which according to indications might be prolonged, were the Deputy National Chairman (South), Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, National Secretary, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Venatius Ikem and National Organisng Secretary, Alhaji Inuwa Labaran, among others.
