Lagos PDP endorses Makinde as South-West leader

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has endorsed the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, as the leader of the party in the South-West.

The Deputy Chairperson of the PDP in Lagos State, Waliu Hassan, made the disclosure on Saturday after meeting with Mr Makinde at Government House in Agodi, Ibadan, Oyo capital.

He told journalists after the meeting that Mr Makinde has worked diligently to become a force to reckon with in the PDP.

More over, a former House of Representatives member, Rita Orji, said they came all the day from Lagos to pledge total loyalty to “his (Makinde’s) leadership of the South-West.”

“We can tell you that the governor does not want anything from us. He, as the Chief Security Officer of Oyo State, needs nothing from the party. Rather, we are the ones who came all the way from Lagos to plead with him to keep leading the party,” he said.

“We resolved to, irrespective of any rancour, move the party forward and we will ensure that the party takes its better seat in 2023. We did not come here to discuss who takes anything for zonal congress. The congress will soon come up and for all we care, we have come to restate our commitment to our own governor.

“It is the full structure of Lagos that is represented here. Out of 19, we have the representation of 12 local government chairmen. We also have 17 complete non-working committee members of state exco here present. We have the deputy chairman of the party here. We have the secretary, legal adviser and the entire party structure of Lagos State here. This is a complete House of PDP, Lagos State,” the party chieftain was quoted by Punch Newspaper.

PREMIUM TIMES has repeatedly reported the Southwest leadership crisis rocking the PDP between Mr Makinde and a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.

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Mr Makinde has consistently claimed to be the leader of the party in South-West, but Mr Fayose disagreed, saying the Oyo state governor is a ‘baby-politician.’

As the crisis gets deeper on a daily basis, the national chairperson of the party, Uche Secondus, has reportedly not made any attempt to reconcile the two politicians.

Recently, a former minister of Power and Steel, Wole Oyeleso, accused Mr Secondus of being selfish and more interested in becoming the chairperson of the party for the second term than the unity of the opposition party.

But Mr Secondus responded, saying the two politicians should settle their differences before the Bukola Saraki reconciliation committee empaneled to reconcile all the warring factions in the party.