Ex-education minister, Tunde Adeniran, disowns aggrieved PDP group

A former Minister of Education Minister and candidate in the just concluded People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chairmanship election, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, has disowned a group which announced its intention to create a new faction within the party yesterday.

Adeniran who spoke through the director of his campaign organisation, Shehu Garba, in Abuja, said anybody who had genuine grievances was free to express them but added that such action should not be linked to him.

He admitted having issues against the convention, but said he had submitted himself to the internal dispute resolution mechanism of the party.

When told that a member of his campaign team was in the aggrieved group, the former minister said the body did not represent him.

Some aggrieved members of the PDP had in Abuja earlier yesterday expressed disaffection about the national convention conducted on December 9, 2017, threatening to form a splinter group.

At a press briefing, the four aggrieved persons, led by one Emmanuel Nwosu, said they were out to reform the party. He denied report that his group was being sponsored by an All Progressives Congress (APC) governor in the South East.

The denial came as speculation became rife yesterday that the APC governor who was said to be in Abuja since Tuesday had held some secret meetings with the group with a view to causing more disaffection in the opposition party.

At the press briefing earlier, Nwosu said the emergence of the National Working Committee (NWC) led by Prince Uche Secondus at the December 9 convention would not stand.

The group which called itself “Fresh PDP” said it would open a secretariat in Asokoro, Abuja. According to Nwosu, the group emerged due to alleged imposition of a unity list on members of the party at the convention.

But the national leadership of the PDP said the party was unperturbed by what it called comical act of some individuals who make outlandish claims in the media.

In a statement, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “The fact is that we are happy with the efforts of the Governor Seriake Dickson-led reconciliation committee as well as the responses from all the respectable and responsible leaders of our party in that regard.

“We will however not be responsible or respond to any person or groups of individuals who decide to allow themselves to be used by forces from another political party in a laughable and childish attempt to distract us.

“The PDP under Secondus-led national leadership will continue to focus on repositioning our great party to be the formidable opposition that will guarantee checks and balances in our polity and ultimately regain power in 2019.”