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AD chairman admits party�s
mistakes in 2003
By
Lekan Sanni
Correspondent,
Lagos
The
Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State, Prince Abiodun
Ogunleye on Tuesday admitted the party�s executive made mistakes on the
choice of some of its candidates for the 2003 general elections. He also
accused some members of the party who recently defected to the PDP of
running after �juicy things�.
Ogunleye,
who spoke to journalists in Lagos admitted that some House of
Representatives members of the party who were returned during the last
elections did not deserve what they got.
Specifically,
he said that one of them did not win the primaries but was picked because
he had been there before adding that the party leaders had earlier warned
of his romance with the PDP.
He
said: �Dotun Animashaun is a friend. I don�t want to talk badly about him.
But he should not have gone back for a second term. His leaders did not
want him because they told us he will eventually join the PDP at the end
of the day. �Femi Onimole should be the last person to complain. I think I
should let the public know that I made the mistake as the party chairman,
we made mistakes by allowing him to go back. �He was defeated at the
primaries by Alhaji Hamzat�s son. We prevailed on Alhaji Hamzat and the
constituency to allow him to go.�
But
because he has been there before, our principle was to let him and the
others go back. But in my own case, I was there the first time and the
house said let the chairman go back�.
Ogunleye
said that the party has already started the process of recalling the
decampees. �There are preliminary stages and we have started
that.
�The
decampees should forget their claim that we will not get the
constitutional requirements to recall them. It is not true�, he
said.
He
denied the insinuations that Senator Musiliu Obanikoro intends to decamp
to the PDP, adding that when he spoke with him, the senator denied any
such move.�We still give him the benefit of the doubt that he has not
gone. He phoned me and said it was not true,� he said.
He
faulted the reasons given by the decampees for jumping the PDP ship,
accusing them of being interested only on what they stand to
gain.
�They
tell us their reasons in the papers but the main reason is more than that.
They are running after juicy things�, he added.
According
to him, there is no crisis in the AD that could warrant their leaving,
even before the last convention of the party. Moreover, Ogunleye said that
both the PDP and the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) are also crisis
ridden. �We will wait for them next year when they will hold their
National Convention and you will see the trouble�, he added.
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