A PDP stalwart and Senator who represented Ogun East Senatorial District at the 8th National Assembly, Senator Buruji Kashamu has described his plan for a genuine reconciliation with the aggrieved members of PDP in the state was as a result of good sportsmanship and an act to adhere to the yearnings of his people most especially the grassroots.
Senator Kashamu said this while reacting to a sponsored advertorial in The Nation newspaper of Friday.
He stressed that, it is in the best interest of the party everyone come together and anybody who objected to the truce cannot be forced against his will.
He maintained that, some of the propaganda spewed out by erstwhile Chairman of the party in the state, Engr. Bayo Dayo in the sponsored publication will die out.
Bayo Dayo said 13 out of the 14 members of the authentic PDP Ogun State Executive committee have gone over to the Ladi Adebutu group.
In his reaction, Kashamu faulted Bayo Dayo claim, saying there was no Adebutu group in the state PDP.
He explained that, the so called Ladi Adebutu group have defected to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in 2019 under a three-year agreement which still subsists.
He insisted that, only the relevant organ of the party led by Samson Bamgbose can enter into any political alliance with another political party.
Kashamu added that, once a group of members decided to abandon their Party and join forces with opposition party, they have effectively defected and lost their membership of the party.
“The commissioning of junk journalism, dependence on mediocre legal advice, unfounded confidence that the judiciary will bow to despotic dictates, falsehood, betrayals and dishonesty are the hallmark of the perennially unsuccessful strategies of those who have believed that they have a birthright to control the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State even though they are a minority.
“This is unfortunately not new to us and (despite the support of some National officers of the PDP for the reactionary wing of the Ogun State PDP, a pitiful minority that has unsuccessfully struggled since 2011 to regain its control over the PDP), will undoubtedly end in failure like before.
“Some of the propaganda being spewed out currently by this group will die out as usual once the truth comes into view.
“Our attention has been drawn to the most recent version of these falsehoods commissioned and published in The Nation Newspaper and City Pulse online publication of May 1st 2020
“FALSEHOOD 1: That 13 out of the 14 members of the authentic PDP Ogun State Executive Committee (authenticated by the judgment of the Federal High Court in its judgment of 24th June, 2016 in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016) have gone over to the Adebutu’s Group.
“THE TRUTH: 1. There is no Adebutu group in the Ogun State PDP; the so called Adebutu group (meaning a bunch of PDP members who supported Ladi Adebutu’s unsuccessful bid for the gubernatorial candidacy of the PDP in 2019) defected to the APM in 2019 under a three-year agreement which still subsists. Only the relevant organ of the PDP (i.e. its Executive Committee) can enter into any political alliance with another political party. Once a group of members decide to abandon their Party and “join forces” with a Party opposing the PDP, they have effectively defected and lost their membership of the Party.
“2. The judgment of the Federal High Court in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016 confirmed, authenticated and specified the Executive Committees of the PDP at Ward, LGA and State levels. So, whilst the State Working Committee is a 14-member body, the State Executive Committee, which the beneficiary of the judgment, is a wider and bigger organ that includes members of the State Working Committee and their Assistants, serving members of the National and State House of Assembly, serving and former members of the National Executive Committee from the State, all elected Local Government Area Party Chairmen in the State, among others.
“3. Whereas those Executive Committees were protected from any interference from without, the judgment did not impede the organic evolution of the said Executive committees that would result from resignations, deaths and or removals by the Committees themselves.
“4. In respect of the Ogun State PDP Executive Committee, it had evolved by 2020 to the point where many of its original members had resigned to contest elections and been duly replaced (the erstwhile Secretary of the Party, Semiu Sodipo himself signed many of the letters conveying the appointment of the replacement of officers who had been resigned or defected from the Party) and some had been suspended (like Semiu Sodipo himself as confirmed by Adebayo Dayo in letters, press releases and sworn affidavit).
“5. Therefore by the end of February, 2020, Semiu Sodipo was no longer a member of the Ogun State PDP Executive Committee (State Exco) and the current members of the State Executive Committee were confirmed by Adebayo Dayo in his letter of 3rd of March, 2020, requesting that the law firm TRLPLAW act for the PDP Ogun State PDP Executive Committee in response to an action (Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/208/2020) instituted under the influence of the reactionary elements in Ogun State in a bid to undermine the judgment of the Federal High Court delivered in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016. It was the same officers that he used to suspend Sodipo.
“6. That list of Ogun State PDP Executive Committee, prepared and signed by Adebayo Dayo, showed that Samson Kayode Bamgbose is the Deputy Chairman and Barrister (Mrs.) Bimbo Lanre-Balogun is the State Secretary of the PDP, amongst others.
“7. From this list of the authentic officers of the Ogun State PDP Executive Committee prepared by Adebayo Dayo (as established by the judgment of the Federal High Court in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016) only Dayo is no longer functioning and this is because he was suspended by a resolution of the State Working Committee on the 26th of March, 2020 for his clandestine attempt to compromise the results of the Ward and LGA congresses conducted on the 7th and 21st of March, 2020 and obstruct the conduct of the State congress then scheduled for the 3rd of April, 2020.
“My call for genuine reconciliation is not an act of cowardice or a sign of weakness. Rather, it is in the spirit of sportsmanship and a direct response to the wish of the people, especially the grassroots. We have always propagated the need for mutual respect and cooperation. If anyone thinks otherwise, we cannot force them to go against their wish. For, as it said, “you can only lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink”. We had thought (and still think) it would be in the overall interest of our Party and the people to come together and become a united and formidable force. “
