‘Alternative platforms will affect PDP at Lagos council polls’

The Chairman of a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Mr Segun Adewale (Aeroland) has called on party members to cast their differences aside and unite to give the party a strong showing in the July 22 council poll.

Adewale, aligned to the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff national leadership, made the call on Thursday while addressing a crowd of party supporters at the party secretariat in Ikeja.

He urged aggrieved members of the party planning to contest the council poll in the state on an alternative platform to drop the idea as it would not bring success.

According to him, it will not be in the interest of the PDP or members, if the party performs woefully in the election just because of infighting.

The chairman emphasised that peace was the only option for the party to do well in the elections, urging members to aim for the success of the party, rather than pursue personal interests.

“I want to urge all our members, those in our faction and in the other camp, to come together and join me to ensure that we do well at the polls.

“Based on the Appeal Court Judgement affirming the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff camp as the authentic national chairman of the party, I, as a member of the Sheriff camp, am the authentic Chairman of the party.

“Even at that, we still want the other camp to join forces with us so that the party can do well at the election.

“For those of our disagreeing members planning to contest the election on alternative platforms, that is not the way to go for you will fail.

“The best for us is to come together and at least do well in the forthcoming election,” he said.

Adewale said it was regrettable that overtures his faction made to the Moshood Salvador faction to bring peace to the party in the state, were not appreciated.

He, however, said the door of peace was still open and urged the Salvador camp to embrace the peace offers of his faction for reconciliation.

Adewale said his faction had postponed its primary earlier scheduled for Friday till Tuesday to allow more time for reconciliation in the party.

The chairman said that the police invaded the party secretariat early Friday and forced people out to enforce an eviction order over rent issues.

He said the eviction directive was given by a prominent member of the Salvador camp who claimed he had bought the property over to disorganise his faction’s preparations.

“We are PDP and this is our secretariat and we will not leave this place for anybody because the party belongs to us all.

“Even if they want to evict us from the secretariat over claims that they have bought this over, they should give us a notice of six months after the elections would have been concluded,” he said.

Adewale said that the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) recognised him as the state chairman based on the court judgement in the Makarfi/Sheriff case.

He said he was glad by the development, which would add fillip to preparations for the election.

The chairman, however, urged LASIEC to ensure all votes counted at the elections to give the poll credibility.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that LASIEC has fixed July 22 for the council polls and July 29 for run-off.