The attempt by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Minister of Commerce and Industries, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, to rally the support of stakeholders in the crisis-ridden Ogun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party for the party’s governorship candidate appears to have suffered another setback.
The two principal characters, who are said to be leading a faction of the state PDP, failed to convince the group of 15 members in the State House of Assembly to support the ambition of the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Maj. Gen. Idowu Olurin (retd.).
After the party’s turbulent primaries, series of litigations and high-level political maneuverings, the faction of the PDP led by Obasanjo, was able to produce the governorship and the three senatorial candidates among other offices in the state.
The turn of events forced the candidates produced by the faction of the State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, to seek political refuge in the Peoples Party of Nigeria.
At a meeting held in the late hours of Friday at the Presidential Hilltop mansion of Obasanjo in Abeokuta at the instance of the former President and Martins-Kuye with the G-15, the PDP leaders, however, ran into a brick wall in their bid to convince the aggrieved lawmakers to support the governorship ambition of Olurin.
Equally, the legislators, who were led by the Speaker, Mr. Tunji Egbetokun, all purportedly suspended by nine of their colleagues, loyal to Daniel on September 6, 2010, demanded to know what Obasanjo had done to ensure that the Assembly was opened to the 26 legislators and not to the G-9, which had continued to sit since the beginning of March.
It was learnt that besides Obasanjo, Martins-Kuye and Olurin, those who attended the meeting as observers were former presidential adviser, Dr. Doyin Okupe; PDP leaders in the state, Senator Tunde Osholake and Chief Dayo Abatan as well as the Senatorial candidate of the Labour Party in Ogun West, Senator Lekan Mustapha.
A source, who attended the meeting and spoke to THE PUNCH on Saturday, said Martins-Kuye informed the lawmakers of the need to put aside their grievances and support Olurin to emerge as the state governor in the April election.
“JMK (Martins-Kuye) explained that Olurin would surely win the governorship contest in the state, saying the G-15 need to support him so that we can be sure of sharing political appointments in the new administration. The minister was so sure that Olurin would win the election, but reminded us that we will need to partake in mobilising support for him,” said the source, who craved anonymity.
It was gathered that Egbetokun asked the former President why the leaders had not taken the same step in prevailing on President Goodluck Jonathan to re-open the House of Assembly complex after six months of closure.
The source said, “The Speaker also wondered why the Assembly was opened to the minority faction when the Presidency finally decided to open the house. Baba Obasanjo said he called the attention of the President to the situation of the House during the PDP rally in Lagos, but that the President claimed he was not aware that the Assembly had not been opened.
“He said President Jonathan promised to look into the matter. Baba said he was surprised that the Assembly was opened to the wrong group instead of the whole House of 26 members.”
The explanations and the two leaders were said to have, however, fallen short of the lawmakers’ expectations as one of them, who had defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria to contest the Odogbolu State Constituency seat in the House of Assembly, Pastor Remmy Hazzan, kicked against the move.
Hazzan, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, was said to have told Obasanjo and Martins-Kuye that it would be improper for him to be called upon to rally support for a PDP candidate, when the ACN had its own governorship candidate.
“He (Hazzan) said three of the G-15 members had defected to the ACN while one is already in Labour Party. He believed that the other 11 members did not need to be persuaded to support Olurin. The other members, who were also in attendance, were not even persuaded by the explanations offered by JMK. Baba (Obasanjo) then said it was impossible for him to force the G-15 to do what they did not believe in,” the source said.
The meeting was said to have ended without the convener being able to extract any positive commitment from the lawmakers.
The former President was said to have continued the second phase of the meeting with other attendees, who, though, were present during the meeting, but did not contribute to the proceedings.
In an interview with THE PUNCH on Sunday, Hazzan confirmed the meeting and the statement ascribed to him at the meeting.
“Yes, we were called for a meeting in Baba’s place, but I guessed the meeting was meant for the PDP members in the House. A situation where someone is saying I should leave the party where I’m already campaigning for election into the House of Assembly cannot be said to be ideal. I’m in ACN and cannot be called upon to rally support for a PDP candidate or leave my present party. How will the people and the party perceive me?” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment