The Youths Congress of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West, on Thursday faulted the recent move to appeal to former Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, to return to the PDP fold, noting that begging him to do so would amount to destroying the party as well as cheapening its integrity.
Report had it on Thursday that a delegation, led by Governor Seyi Makinde, pleaded with Daniel to return to the PDP with the offer of the leadership of the party in Ogun State to him.
Mr Oluwole Durojaye, who convened the South-West PDP youths forum, however, said in a statement made available to journalists on Thursday that Makinde’s alleged desperation to have new allies led him to embark on the needless mission to beg the former Ogun State governor.
It stated that the action of the governor was demeaning and unwarranted in the current situation as the former Ogun State governor does not deserve the honour accorded him by the Makinde-led team.
According to the statement, the PDP lost the 2019 presidential poll due to the activities of politicians like Daniel, who betrayed the party to pave the way for the Call Progressives Congress for self serving reasons.
The statement read in parts, “It is on record that despite being the director-general of the Atiku presidential campaign, Gbenga Daniel did not even wait for official reaction to the election results by the PDP and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar before dumping the party.
“The question is, would Otunba Gbenga Daniel have dumped the PDP as he did in 2019 if Atiku had won the presidential election?
“As far as we are concerned, Gbenga Daniel acted like a mole during the election and it was actions of traitors like him that cost PDP that election.
“Most importantly, as at today, all his ( Daniel) right hand men are in APC. Many of them are even appointees of the APC government in the state. Presently, his hotel in Abeokuta is where APC activities hold and he was still in a meeting with Governor Dapo Abiodun few days ago.”
The PDP youths, while further deriding Makinde’s plea to Daniel, said the governor should have begged Yusuf, President Muhammadu Buhari’s son or Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi, to lead the PDP at the national level.
Attempts to get a reaction from the governor was, however, abortive as telephone calls made to Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, were not answered. The text message that was sent to him was also not replied as of the time of filing this report.
Governor Makinde has been making efforts to pull his weight in the party just as he positions himself to clinch the South-West leadership seat of the leading opposition political party, an aspiration that pitches him on the war path against former Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, who is also nursing the same ambition.
This has kept the heat high in the PDP as different groups within the party in the zone back one of the two available choices for the exalted position just as some loyalists of the party express fears that if care is not taken, the crisis may polarize the party thereby reducing its chance of carrying the day in future election.
Recall that the lingering crisis between Governor Makinde and former Governor Fayose, turned out for the worse few days ago as some prominent leaders of the PDP in Oyo State, Nureni Akanbi, Alhaji Bisi Olopoeyan, and Femi Babalola, endorsed Dr. Eddy Olafeso as the chairmanship candidate of the party in the South-West.
