In this interview with HEAD POLITICS DESK, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM AND KAYODE ADEOTI, the embattled chairman of the Kwara State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo speaks on the latest chairmanship crisis rocking the party. Excerpts: 

With the recent development from the congress, Prince Fagbemi is claiming to be Party chair…

I don’t know where and how they held their own congress because the person who was declaring himself as the chairman was with us all through the congress we held at Stella Obsanjo Hall. So when did they go elsewhere to hold another congress? Of course, you press men should know if you are there on that day. There is no other congress held in Kwara State apart from the one we held at Obasanjo Hall.

Fagbemi said he didn’t boycott the election nor step down as people have insinuated, but that he was not allowed to exercise his franchise.

Who prevented him from exercising his franchise? He was allowed to come in, he was allowed to contest, the delegates were to vote for whoever made himself available, and at the close of the whole thing, he withdrew. so if he withdrew from the race, does that mean he was not allowed to exercise his franchise? He voluntarily withdrew for reason best known to him and this was the man who was there from 11am to quarter after 7. What made him to wait for that long that he now later withdrew? Did they beat him? Did they disallow him from entering or ask him any question as regards his ability? He was never disqualified; he disqualified himself from going further.

They claimed you sponsored the violence that marred the process, how true is that?

Thank God you were there, you saw that police arrested many people, even people with gun, and also arrested a full load of jeep with gun and other ammunition. I urge you to do your investigation by going to the police and ask them whoever owns the jeep and his occupants. They will be able to tell you whether it is me or anyone else who asked them to come there and instructed them to come and disrupts the congress.

Fagbemi’s group also alleged that five of the national officers that monitored the congress signed the list against the two that endorsed yours?

That is a lie because all of them were with us. In any case, on what sheet did they sign on because we have the authentic sheet with us at the congress. We have won and we are running our party and if they like, they can go elsewhere.

Where does the national body stands in all of these because Fagbemi said he had written to them

As you are talking to me now, I am in Abuja, the people that came to conduct the election, the chairman and the secretary brought the report of the congress to Abuja, which has been accepted. As a result of the acceptance of the results, I was invited to the north central zonal conference. We just ended the meeting about 30minutes ago, (Saturday around 6:50pm). If Fagbemi is accepted, why is he not here at the zonal conference? That which is accepted, the one that has no controversy, the one that was legally conducted is the one that is now being legally accepted and I remain the chairman of PDP in Kwara State for the next four years.

It was alleged that you have misled the people about holding congress in Kwara State all this while, why the change now? 

Yes, that was my position but they went to the national headquarters and they were insisting that there should be congress. I have the legal right to go and stop them in court but I never did.  At a certain stage, I wondered and said, do these people think they have majority support but later decided to go for congress which is against my own aim and interest. They felt they will be able to defeat me and prevent me from spending two years but now I defeated them. I was asking for two years but God has given me four, why are they complaining?

This latest development seems to have further polarise the party in the state?

No! It is not going to polarise anything. We are going to set up a reconciliation committee to see to it for whoever that wants to come back, and whoever that doesn’t want to come back, the party will not wait because we have a lot of programmes to do, we will go on. If anyone feels he wants to be part of PDP, we will work together but will not allow crisis to jeopardise our preparations.

How true is the allegation that people from Kwara central were the ones that vehemently opposed your chairmanship on this issue?

That is not true because some people even from my own community are even against me but some people from the central are also fanatical in their support for me. Politics is not about relation but about being loved by those people that preferred you. Many people preferred me from the central, so many people preferred me from the north even from my own town and local government in Isin, but that does not mean that even in my own compound, some people may be against me, it depends on their strength. The strength of those against me in Kwara PDP is too weak.

Part of the reason they have opposed you is their argument that this is the worst result for the opposition party in the history of the state as the party did not return even a single seat in the last election. How do you react to this?

And they need to go further to know whether I am the failure of the party or many of them that were unable to even have meaningful outing in their own ballot areas, and even those leaders making these allegation were unable to win in their own ballot areas. I, as the chairman still has the best result for our party in the last election in the whole of Kwara State. I won in my ward, and local government from the onset and other elections. If they had done well like me, then there will be no body to complain, so if we don’t win any seat, it is a thing we need to seat down together and discuss why we failed, could it be because instead of having one candidate, we have too many aspirants about 13 of them that wanted to challenge the sitting governor, and we asked them to step down for one another but they did not, is the chairman guilty of that? They brought money for election, I was never part of the sharing, could that also be reason for the failure? They constituted the campaign organisation themselves, without reference to me so if their campaign organisation failed them, must they now put it on the chairman? People that are saying we performed woefully, they are looking at performance or performances they didn’t look at the weaknesses of our leaders and the circumstance under which we operated.

Is it true that your alleged sit-tight to the party chairmanship is all about your personal interest and that you have been foisting yourself on the party?

We’ve voted now, majority want me, majority didn’t want them, so where is their own majority? If I didn’t have majority I wouldn’t have won, I don’t think they have any point. Minority didn’t want me to go on but majority does, what then is their business again?

Is the party not throwing away the best opportunity for a credible opposition in the state with the current crisis?

I have been creating a platform for credible opposition more than anybody in Kwara, if I have not held the party together since we failed during the last election, the party could have gone into extinction. But today PDP is even a threat to the ruling APC in the state and I am running it in a way that the leaders of the APC has been threatened. Who else could have done it better? If I am removed as the PDP chairman in Kwara today, APC leaders will celebrate. We have a radio programme, we have a television programme we are sensitising the people, we are criticizing seriously the people in government, we are exposing them and their antics every week and that is their problem. So I am really their problem, so who else could have run PDP as I am doing? Those people that want me out are spoilers and they are on assignment for the APC.

Where does this lead the party leaders now because it seems the leaders are divided, some are with Fagbemi while others are with you?

The people that are with me are formidable enough for me to continue and if those that are not with me want to join us then they can come around.

How would this affect the local government election coming up in the state?

No, it won’t affect us, we will just ignore those people that are not with us and do our work. Those that are not with us are not controlling the crowd so we move straight to the crowd and sensitise them, we don’t have time to waste, anyone that wants to join us should come, we will welcome the fellow, no room for sentiment but for work now.

The PDP is currently having crisis at the states and national level, how do you react to this?

The PDP at the national level has its fair share of crisis as the APC also has at the national and state. There is nothing happening to PDP that is strange, it is about people and multiplicity of interest and one will dominate the other at the end of the day, that is all.

Do you think we can have political solution to this issue between you and Fagbemi?

Well, If Fagbemi wants to come round and work for the party, there is opportunity for him, the party is not about me and him but about winning election. There is nothing personal between me and him, I hold the party together and he can come around if he wants to work. Whoever lost out in the leadership tussle should forget the past and come around to work together for the progress of the party. If they want to continue to destroy the system, we will simply ignore them and move on. We have finished the election and nothing again until four years. We won’t wait for anyone, whoever wants to come should come and let’s face it together and if not, they are free to go elsewhere.

How ready is the party for Oke-Ero Election?

We are more than ready, we are campaigning and moving round and by the grace of God, we will have victory, we are ready.