One of the contestants for the recently concluded national chairmanship election of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Rasheed Ladoja, has said South-west leaders will not leave the party despite losing out at the elections.
Mr. Ladoja, a former governor of Oyo state, said this at a meeting with the Governor Dickson Seriake-led reconciliation committee in Ibadan, Oyo State on Thursday. He confirmed that the South-west PDP leaders and members will remain in the party and work for its victory in 2019.
Governor Dickson, who had earlier promised to address grievances following the tense outcome of the convention earlier this week, reached out to another contestant, Tunde Adeniran.
Mr. Adeniran had advised the committee to reach out to other contestants who are also aggrieved ‘one way or the other.’
Before this, former president Goodluck Jonathan had led a reconciliation team to visit another aggrieved leader, Suleiman Abubakar, a former minister for national planning.
“In spite of the disagreements over Saturday’s elective National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), leaders of the party in the South-west zone have restated their resolve to remain in the party,” Mr. Ladoja said.
“I am in politics to make Nigeria work. In 1999 they begged me to be the gubernatorial candidate of the Alliance For Democracy (AD) and I refused. I wanted a mainstream party. I have seen it all in PDP both the ascension and descent. It is the people that make the party not the other way round. If we come together, we will make the government that the people deserve. We are back to PDP and we will remain in PDP.”
Speaking on the controversy surrounding the national convention, Mr. Ladoja further said, “a week to the National Convention, we started pruning and on the eve, we had decided that Prof. Tunde Adeniran was our consensus candidate but the delegates decided otherwise. However, we will remain in the PDP, we are not going anywhere”.
“In the PDP we have the chance of winning across board. I will work assiduously to make sure all the aspirants in the South-west remain in the party and work for the party. This PDP will win. If you think you hate PDP, try the APC and you will see that APC is worse,” he said.
Governor Dickson thanked Mr. Ladoja for his commitment and sacrifice to the party and assured that the party remains one strong united family, where all members are equal stakeholders.