Anxiety has gripped the Ondo state executives of the Peoples Democratic Party over an alleged plan to dissolve them from the ward to the state level.
Sources told Vanguard that the alleged plan was to accommodate loyalists of the former Governor Olusegun Mimiko who recently joined the party from the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
A caretaker committee will be put in place pending the time the party conducts a fresh congress in the state.
The fear of the state executive members was that loyalists of the former governor may hijack the party pending the conduct of fresh Congress in the state.
It was gathered that the dissolution of the Ondo PDP executives was discussed at a meeting between Mimiko and the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
Recall that Mimiko, before his defection to the party met behind closed doors with four PDP governors.
The governors who visited him at his Ondo country home were led by the chairman of the PDP governors forum and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tamnbuwal.
Governors at the meeting with Mimiko included Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Abia, Okezie Ikpeazu and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde.
Mimiko reportedly got the nod of the PDP governors to push for the dissolution of the current PDP state executives from the ward to the state level.
The party’s state executive led Hon Fatai Adams is believed to be a loyalist of the party former governorship candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, SAN.
A PDP chieftain, who spoke in confidence, revealed that “PDP governors deliberately distanced themselves from Jegede’s campaign during the last governorship election in Ondo State just because of his attachment to Atiku project. He was the state coordinator for Atiku during the 2019 Presidential election and he delivered the state for Atiku.
“These governors are only threatened and they believed that supporting Jegede to become a governor would only be a plus to the Presidential ambition of Atiku, hence, they decided to give an eyeservice.
“We are keenly monitoring Mimiko’s movement, particularly his romance with these two Governors, Wike and Tambuwal who believe they owned the party.
“We are aware of this grand plot to dissolve Fatai Adams led’s executive immediately the National Working Committee of the party officially takes over the affairs of the party and we are battle-ready to fight these two governors and their emissaries legally.
“After Mimiko dumped our party (PDP) in 2018 to return to Labour Party (LP) and later ZLP, left the party in shattered. We rebuilt the party from the scratch.
“During the 2019 National Assembly election, our party did excellently well by producing two senators out of the three and three House of Representatives lawmakers.
“In Ondo PDP, Mimiko must wait for his time. We are aware that he was in Rivers State recently on Wike’s invitation to commission a project. No amount of project commissioning in Rivers state by Mimiko will change the already established political structure in Ondo State”.
However, a former commissioner in the state, who recently rejoined PDP urged the old PDP members to give room for the new entrants to thrive in the party.
Contacted, the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Kennedy Peretei dismissed it describing it as a beer parlour talk
Peretei said ” I’m not aware of that. It is a beer parlour talk. We are elected executives and we are yet to spend two years out of our four-year tenure. That is the position of the law.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria
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