Date: 2015-02-27

The leadership crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) got messier as an aide of Senator Gbemisola Saraki, Toyin Olosasa, took the party’s Chairman, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, to the cleaners by questioning his leadership ability.

Olosa, in an exclusive chat with National Pilot, in Ilorin, alleged that Oyedepo, lacked the locus standi to preside over the party in the state.

The Senator’s aide reacted to Oyedepo’s claim that Saraki allegedly shunned the invitation extended to her to attend a party’s meeting scheduled for last Saturday at its secretariat in Ilorin.

Oyedepo had told exclusively told this medium that despite his invitation, Saraki had remained aloof from the party’s activities.

“She has the choice to participate in PDP activities or not. I even invited her to a meeting on Saturday but she didn’t come and she did not tell me why she took that decision.

“I will continue to throw invitation to her but I don’t know why she has become a little bit aloof. That is her own choice”, the state’s PDP chairman told one of our reporters on Monday in Ilorin.

The state’s chapter of the party had been locked up in crisis shortly after its governorship primaries.

But in a swift reaction, Olosasa said his camp does not recognise Oyedepo as the party’s chairman.

“Akogun is fraudulent; he is a rogue and lacks the locus standi to call himself chairman of the party. The election that brought him in was dubious and for that purpose, we don’t recognise him as the chairman.

“He benefited from our group (Unity Group) and has been with the Sarakis for long and benefitted immensely from them. He was a member of the South East Committee of the late Olusola Saraki for President”.

“During the Action Alliance days, he was stripped naked at Enyekorin over the sum of N500, 000. This is a man who cannot conduct a successful election in Ilorin West Local Government and as it is today, there is no proper exco in the council”, he added.     

When Oyedepo was contacted last night over the allegation, he said he would not join issue with Olosasa.

“What did he say about me? On what ground did he say I lack locus standi as the party chairman. Just and write whatever you want to write. I don’t want to join issue with him”, he submitted.

It would be recalled that this medium had exclusively reported complaints of Saraki’s close aides regarding how the state’s hierarchy of the party had reportedly frustrated her despite all her efforts to see to the success of the party.

Meanwhile, Oyedepo has accused the leaders of the party of pursuing personal ego at the expense of the success of the party in the state and admitted that the party lacks funds to prosecute its elections.

In what appeared as the confirmation of the crisis rocking the party, the PDP’s chairman at an enlarged meeting held in Ilorin last Saturday, indicted some leaders of  the party of behaving as if they were bigger than the party.

Oyedepo in an address delivered at the meeting tagged: ‘’ Repacking PDP for electoral victory in 2015 Election in Kwara State’’, a copy which was exclusively obtained by this medium, also accused some of the party’s leaders of embarking on personal projects at the detriment of the party’s progress.

He also acknowledged that the rocking the party had affected it campaign ahead of the rescheduled election, just as he called on his members to support the state party’s guber candidate, Senator Simeon Ajibola.    

Oyedepo, according to the document, which was dripped with venom, also identified fund paucity as one of the problems confronting the party in the state.

The address read in part, ‘’Members of the party especially at the leadership level are mostly on ego trips. Leaders here behave as if they are larger and bigger than the party and mostly go or stay in Abuja to peddle influence which national leadership of the party is eager to acknowledge without reference to the state leadership of the party.

‘’This does not allow for party discipline and sustenance of corporate interest of the party. Another major problem is the paucity of funds to operate the party.

‘’Though there are many acclaimed leaders in the party, many of them financed personal projects in line with their ambitions with scanty attention to financing the party. Party leaders will rather buy rice, ram, turkey, clothes etc for members rather than such money available for party management and organisation. We treat the party with scanty attention, when it is the only platform through, which ambitions can be actualized.

‘’Our campaign have not be visible in eight local councils of Kwara State. We are yet to energinze our conversers with appropriate messages in form of flyers, handbills, pictorial postal to critise those in government. We have not also done any form of road show that could have serious sensitization and mobilization effects on prospective voters.

 ‘’The fact that w did primaries to pick our candidates separated our party from others. There is the need to regard the primaries as an intra party conflict for office. Should there still persist conflict after the conclusion of the primaries, it could be taken to be anti-party intriques.

‘’There is a wide gulf that must be bridged today between our gubernatorial candidate and Mohammed Dele Belgore group. While the camp of our guber candidate believes that Mr. Dele Belgore, SAN, is not doing much to advance the gubernatorial aspirations of our candidate; Dele Belgore group believes that the group members are deliberately side-lined in the affairs of the operations of the campaign programme.

‘’The crisis of confidence is such that Mohammed Dele Belgore is accused today of sponsoring candidates for offices in the Labour Party’’.