Crisis has hit the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State consequent upon the alleged unilateral ratification of the botched February 26, 2022 state Congress by the party’s national chairman, Dr Iyorcha Ayu.
Influential members of the party under the aegis of elders and stakeholders in the Lagos state chapter of the party have articulated their grouse about Ayu’s decision in a communique issued after their March 31, 2022 meeting.
In the communique, signed by leaders of the party in the state – Remi Akitoye, Senator Kofo Akerele-Bucknor and Chief Mrs Onikepo-Oshodi – National chairman, Dr Ayu, was slammed for his purported interference in the affairs of the state chapter by his unilateral ratification of the February 26th botched state Congress.
They expressed disappointment and disbelief that Ayu, by the action, “arrogantly dismissed the collective essence of the National Working Committee, capriciously behaved like an autocrat, disregarded any attempt at plural contributions, appropriating what ought to be a collective decision in a brazen proprietary authority.”
According to the communique, Ayu in opting for the ratification, behaved like a sole administrator, contemptuous of the sobering voices of the Southwest representatives.
The group alleged that despite various petitions emanating from the aspirants, the BOT members, the Caretaker Committee and the concerned individuals which substantiated the fact that the congress was a brazen sham, Dr Ayu still disregarded the various voices of reason.
They insisted that the reports from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Appeal Committee, the Board of Trustees (BOT) Elders, the Caretaker Committee and other quarters were all unanimous about the untidy, flawed and the inconclusive nature of the botched Congress.
Notwithstanding, they alleged that “Ayu in his wisdom cast aside this cumulative weight of evidence, hastened in contemptuous indifference to the truth, jettisoned what is right and just, flung away the constitutional pivot of our party which is anchored on justice and fairness doctrine.
“We are dismayed, sickened and sad that there is a desperate attempt to destabilize Lagos State and render the Yoruba race inconsequential in the scheme of things.”
The group said that Lagos state alone had the largest electoral figures in the nation, adding that this should not be happening very close to election year.
The elders further claimed that they had ascertained and were convinced that there was a well-planned, premeditated attempt to hand over the state to fifth columnists “whose mission is unknown, whose purpose is shrouded in an ultimate goal that appears to be a complicity with the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We will never roll over and fade away. We will fight this injustice with temperance and sure-footedness. We reject this failed attempt to impose on the majority of our members a botched, inconclusive Congress that has no legality in law and no iota of legitimacy in the moral sense.”
The elders stated that the injustice done to Lagos seemed to be aligned with a very dangerous pattern to elbow out the people of the Southwest from high table at the PDP conclave.
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