Things fall apart in Lagos PDP

TRACKING >>Although the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State is not alien to crisis, the current internal wrangling within the party after the 2019 general election, to say the least, is knotty as the opposition party is currently without a substantive state chairman, WALE ELEGBEDE reports

Prior to the March 9 governorship election in Lagos State, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been living in graveyard peace. Things were really not working within the party’s fold, but a lid was placed preventing the crisis from escalating before the election.
Since smoke cannot be concealed, the outcome of the election badly hit the party and since then, it is yet to get its balance in Lagos State. The opposition party arguably puts up his worst performance in recent election cycles at the just concluded polls and that result has set the party on the edge of fresh crisis.
At the governorship election, the party’s candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, who is contesting for the third time, got trounced by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
It will be recalled that the party came into the race with a lower deficit in Lagos politics. The PDP has not been able to take the seat of power in Alausa since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999.
Just after the election, darts started to fly from one end of the party to the other. Expectedly, a post-mortem meeting on the party’s poor outing was held at the Ikoyi office of the former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Chief Bode George, and this perhaps unmasked the latest round of crisis in the party.
It was gathered that tempers flared at the meeting and it almost degenerated to a free-for-all, but for the intervention of George and other leaders. Agbaje was said to be present at the meeting.
Just after the meeting, the Director-General of Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Council in Lagos State, Chief Layi Ogunbambi, accused Agbaje of being the brain behind the party’s poor showing, saying the governorship candidate frustrated all those who genuinely desire to work for the party at all levels.
He said: “My issue with Jimi (Agbaje) is not about Ceaser and Brutus. It is about a man supported with my time and money in 2015 and 2019 and later discovered that he was nothing but a serial politician coming every four years to use our Lagos PDP platform to amass enormous wealth for himself.”
But, not letting Ogunbambi’s comment slide, Agbaje, who responded through his media aide, Felix Oboagwina, said the PDP chieftain has a serious conflict of interest to deal with.
According to him, he had his wife, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Ogunbambi, contesting as a gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State against PDP on another party platform.
“I, as the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Lagos, was Chairman of the PDP Presidential Campaign in Lagos. Mr. Leke Osikoya was the State Campaign Director. The national body recognized and related to us accordingly. The title of Director General was reserved for the national campaign council. If there was an Atiku/Obi Presidential Campaign it would have, at best, been a Support Group,” he said.
But, if Ogunbambi’s allegation didn’t mean anything to Agbaje, that of the party’s chairman in the state, Dr. Adegbola Dominic, appears more toxic, perhaps.
Speaking to newsmen, Dominic accused Agbaje of flagrant disregard for party rules and its leadership, including the apex leader of the party, Chief George. He added that Agbaje displayed ignorance of the working of the party by taking charge of the campaign finances and refusing to work with the party.
Dominic said the party has no record of how the monies were spent, who and who got what, adding, “He (Agbaje) is the architect of this defeat. It is a shame; it is so humiliating to the party. PDP has never had it so bad.
“It is not his name that is on the ballot paper, but the party and the PDP logo”, he said, stressing that the PDP had learnt its lesson and it would never happen again.”
The chairman said even though the party did well in the presidential elections, the party had never had it so bad in the governorship.
His words: “You can see the effect of what he did. It is true that he did the disbursement of money all by himself. He hijacked the funds and up till now the party has asked him to give us the details of how he disbursed the money, but he has refused to give any record to the party. The party has no record of what was disbursed to whom and for what purpose.
“I, as the party chairman in the state, was never invited to even a single outing of the governorship candidate. I didn’t know what he was doing and his plans. He didn’t carry anybody along in the mainstream of the party.”
Reacting, Agbaje shrugged off allegations that he pilfered campaign funds. “I was not given one kobo by the party or the PDP Presidential Candidate for the gubernatorial elections. We ran our campaign from beginning to end on a shoe-string budget. You cannot steal or divert what is not given,” he said.
According to him, resources sent for the presidential and National Assembly elections were disbursed as per instructions received, and the source had shown satisfaction with the exercise.
“All the fuss stem from the fact that, contrary to the Lagos PDP tradition of sharing money to leaders, Agbaje disbursed funds direct to candidates, as instructed.
“The era of taking a share of what is not ours must stop in our party. The bitterness is from those who find it difficult to believe that money can be channeled without a ‘cut’ being taken. Leaders must lead by example,” he said.
But, countering the PDP governorship candidate’s statement on preventing sharing of money to leaders, George told New Telegraph in an interview that Agbaje should mention the leaders that shared campaign money in Lagos PDP.
He said: “Which PDP leaders shared money? Was he there? When he contested in 2015, we ran the elections where we won eight House of Assembly seats, six Federal House of Representatives seats and the margin of defeat at the governorship was nothing embarrassing. Sharing which money?
“So, it is an idea that he personified the party? I have been the leader of this party from day zero if he has the nerves let him point the names of those who have shared the monies. It is not only an insult; he must be a special candidate in the hospital.”
Currently, the party is getting depleted by the day as some of its members are already on their way to the opposition APC.
Leading the exodus is the former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe. His son, Moyo, who was a two-time state Assembly candidate, had earlier moved to the APC.
Also on the defection train from the PDP was the lone lawmaker of the party in the last 8th Assembly, Hon. Dipo Olorunninu. The legislator, who defected to the APC after losing reelection bid, said he is progressive in mind, hence his decision to team up with the ruling party.
In the same guise of crisis, the party’s chairmanship seat is literally vacant as the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party in Abuja, has asked the South-West PDP chairman, Dr. Eddy Olafeso, to take over affairs of the party, following the expiration of Dominic’s three-month acting tenure.
But Dominic, who became the chairman of the party in an acting capacity following the exit of erstwhile chairman, Hon. Moshood Salvador to PDP, still apparently has some level of influence in the party despite the NWC directive.
With the return of the party’s former senatorial candidate in Lagos West, Mr. Segun Adewale, who contested the Ekiti governorship election on the platform of Action Democratic Party (ADP), to take charge of the party, it is still hazy how the party would first constitute its leadership that is fractured across the state, local governments and wards.
Clearly, the on-again-off-again internecine political interest in Lagos PDP is back, but how and when it will be resolved is only left to time to answer.