PDP leaders meet in Ibadan, sue for peace

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West have met in Ibadan with a call on its two factions at all levels to unite to avoid monumental losses in the future elections.

The meeting organised by members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) from the zone, was chaired by Chief Shuaib Oyedokun.

The leaders, under the aegis of South-West Forum, said the party was not dead, would never die and be subsumed by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Oyedokun, also a former deputy national chairman of PDP, who addressed reporters yesterday in Ibadan at the end of the meeting also attended by Senator Buruji Kashamu; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; as well as erstwhile ministers of Education and Sports, Prof. Tunde Adeniran and Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, said: “The meeting was purely the initiative of the South-West members of the Board of Trustees, a replica of what the main body is doing at the centre, and an extension of the national reconciliatory committee.”

According to him, the meeting was geared towards forging unity in the party ahead of governorship polls in Ondo and Osun states this year and in 2017 as well as 2019 general elections.

Besides, in a communique issued at the end of the meeting and read by Adedoja, the forum commended the leadership and membership of PDP in Edo State for their gallant fight in the last governorship election held there. It urged them to close ranks and work together to sustain the control of the state by PDP in the forthcoming polls.

It added: “This forum admonishes the leadership of our party to clearly zone the position of the national chairmanship of PDP to the South-West as the only zone that has never held that position before.

“The forum calls on the state chapters of the party to replicate this type of meeting in their respective states to resolve all internal grievances.

“The forum also decided that irrespective of the various challenges facing the party at the national level, at the zonal level and each state of the federation, all leaders and members of the party have resolved to remain in PDP with a view to taking over power in Nigeria in 2019.”