A drama played out in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Monday, as some aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party passed a vote of no confidence in Governor Seyi Makinde as the party’s leader.
The aggrieved PDP members vowed that they would work against Makinde re-emergence as the party’s candidate in the 2023 governorship election in the state.
They expressed their misgivings on the governor’s decision to prioritize the interest of ‘outsiders’ whom they alleged contributed little or nothing to his electoral success in 2019.
They described the governor’s failure to satisfy party members in keeping with his promise during electioneering as the betrayal of party’s trust.
The Monday meeting, held at the Jogor Events Centre, Ring Road, Ibadan, ahead of the party’s Congress, was attended by members drawn from the 33 local government areas of the state, including the former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mulikat Akande; a former deputy governor of the state, Alhaji Hazeem Gbolarumi; Nureni Akanbi, AbdulRasheed Olopoeyan and Femi Babalola.
Akande, in her address to party members on the occasion, said, “Go to your wards, mobilize your people. Don’t fight anybody. Record whatever happens and leave us to do the remaining in Abuja.”
The party chief stated that never again would members entrust their destinies to Governor Makinde.
The aggrieved PDP stakeholders and members called for the governor’s resignation from the party in a bid to avoid breakdown of peace within its fold.
