How Lagos PDP congress was truncated

A source, who preferred to be anonymous, said what happened last Saturday was a debacle stage-managed by an influential chieftain whose grip on the party is being threatened by unfolding events. The source said the embattled party chieftain scuttled the event by creating an artificial security scare to disperse members that had gathered to exercise their constitutional right.

The source who is an aspirant said some of them knew the game plan well ahead of the aborted congress. He, however, vowed to resist any kind of illegality and imposition of candidates whenever the party decides to reschedule the congress.

Like the All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP had fixed Saturday, October 16, 2021, for the state congress in many states and many aspirants, delegates, and others had gathered to cast their votes for their candidates.

As early as 8 am, some of the party members, bouncers and security forces had started arriving at the venue.

By 11:45 am, Secretary to the Electoral Committee, Senator Biodun Olujimi, addressed the congregants, urging them to be orderly and directed the take-off of accreditation of delegates.

She said: “We are here today to exercise our right. Like you know, the other party too is doing its congress today. Let us behave ourselves and maintain decorum so that after the exercise, we can have new party managers that will lead us to victory in the next governorship election in Lagos.”

But, a few hours after, it became obvious that the congress will not hold, as one of the party members raised the alarm over plans by some powerful forces within the party to truncate the process.

Olujimi confirmed this earlier when she said, it was obvious some people were not at the venue for the congress and were bent on truncating the event. “Though voting will soon commence, but it is very apparent that some people don’t want this process to go on; some people want to truncate the process. It is also clear that some people want to vote. So, there is a clash of interests and we’re trying as much as possible to resolve the issue.

“All through yesterday (Friday), we tried to resolve the challenge, but we couldn’t; if we had succeeded, we would have just come here today to read out the list. Notwithstanding, the exercise will be free and fair. Whether they want it or not, we will maintain law and order to do as much as we can.”

Former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Bode George had also hinted that there was a likelihood of rescheduling the state congress.

George, who lamented the presence of some miscreants at the venue, however, urged the members of the Electoral Committee to do needful.

He told reporters: “I would advise that they would have to watch their time. Unfortunately, there are too many people who are not delegates inside this place. They should have been directed to a seat in the foyer.

“But, when it gets dark, the congress cannot be held, and in that case, the most sensible thing to do is to postpone the exercise till after our National Convention.”

But, an aspirant, who does not want to be named, said it was the rain of gunshots that led to the dismissal of the party members. He alleged that those loyal to a chieftain and a godfather in the Lagos PDP deliberately did that to scuttle the process. He added that the embattled chieftain had seen the handwriting on the wall if the congress were to be held, the outcome would not favour him; hence the planned disruption.

The aspirant said it will be difficult to settle for a consensus candidate, as most of the aspirants will not agree to such an arrangement. He added: “Notwithstanding, we shall do it another day and we will defeat them. We will not agree to a consensus arrangement.

They wanted to force that on us, but we vehemently rejected that idea.”

He asked: “How can they be talking about consensus now when about six people already had filed for chairmanship slot and over 50 others had shown interest in other elective posts? What were they looking at before those people obtained forms and went through all the processes?”

Even, if they refund our money, can they refund our efforts?”

The party maintained, however, that it was its political opponents that scuttled the process. The outgoing spokesman, Taofik Gani echoed this view. He said: “The chairman of the committee had started giving out ballot papers to the delegates for the voting when suddenly gunshots were heard from different angles. The delegates were orderly until after the gunshots, which scared a lot of them into leaving the venue.