Former Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, on Thursday said the Peoples Democratic Party remains a formidable political force in the state despite the defection of Governor Ademola Adeleke to the Accord Party.
Oyinlola made the assertion during a stakeholders’ meeting of the party held in Osogbo, the state capital.
The meeting was attended by the PDP Caretaker Chairman and Secretary in Osun, Tunde Tijani and Seyi Bamidele, respectively, as well as former Secretary to the State Government, Fatai Akinbade, and former PDP South-West Vice Chairman, Taju Oladipo. However, all appointed and elected political office holders in the state were absent.
Addressing members drawn from the 30 local government areas of the state and the Ife East Area Office, Oyinlola said the meeting was convened to clarify the party’s position at both the national and state levels amid what he described as “confusing narratives” about its status.
“There have been some confusing narratives being pushed out about the status of PDP, especially in Osun State, and what we have done today is to narrate situations as they are to our members, so that the entire wards and local governments in Osun will know exactly where PDP stands today in Osun State,” he said.
Reacting to claims that the PDP had collapsed its structures into the Accord Party to support Adeleke’s governorship ambition, Oyinlola dismissed the insinuations.
“PDP is a party that has its tentacles in all the nooks and crannies of this country. It is not in our own time that we will allow it to die. We are holding on to PDP. If tomorrow, our governor decides to come back and be with his family in PDP, he is most welcome, but for now, PDP is standing in Osun State strongly,” he added.
Speaking at the meeting, Tijani also rejected reports of any alliance or merger with the Accord Party, insisting that the PDP remained intact in the state.
“PDP stands firmly, and it has not colluded with the Accord as being rumoured,” he said.
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He disclosed that the new state leadership of the party would soon embark on a tour of the 30 local government areas to set up caretaker committees ahead of the party’s proposed congress.
“We are going to each local government to constitute a committee that will oversee the affairs of the party in the local government, and they too will constitute the ward caretaker committee pending the time we will have congress at the state level,” Tijani said.
Uncertainty has trailed the Osun PDP since Adeleke’s defection to the Accord Party to pursue his governorship ambition.
Following his exit, the National Working Committee of the PDP dissolved the State Working Committee led by Sunday Bisi and replaced it with a caretaker committee. However, the dissolved executive rejected the decision, maintaining that it remains the constitutionally recognised leadership of the party in the state.