Why PDP lost to Rotimi Akeredolu's APC - Sen. Buruji Kashamu

Senator Buruji Kashamu yesterday explained why his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, lost the Saturday’s Ondo State governorship election to the All Progressives Congress.


Kashamu, in a statement signed by him, said that no one should mistake the pronouncements of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket as their judgments on the party’s national leadership crisis.

He said that the refusal of the Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, to listen to advice on where his successor should come from worked against him and the PDP during the election.


Kashamu said, “We told Governor Mimiko that after eight years in office, the good people of Ondo State would resist the injustice of producing a successor from the same senatorial district where he hails from.

“It is not that Jegede is not a good material. He is urbane, intelligent and smart. He would have probably won had he come from any other senatorial zone than Mimiko’s.

“We told Mimiko that the people would not take anything that would look like a third term for him and his senatorial district. He would not listen.

“ Mimiko turned deaf ears to wise counsel, just like he turned his back on all those who helped him to power.

“Despite being the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Mimiko turned himself into Fayose’s puppet, allowing Fayose to lead him by the nose.”

On the claim by the spokesman for the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that the party would impose severe sanction on Sheriff and members of his faction, Kashamu said such action would fail.

But he said that neither he nor any member of the faction was afraid of such impending sacrifice since, he said, they were fighting for the interest of their people.

He said, “”No one is afraid of any sanction so long as we know that we are fighting to protect the interest of our people.

“A political party is a congregation of people with a common goal yet with various interests. In every political setting, people align and realign with the bloc or group where they feel their interest is better protected and guaranteed.

“If your bloc or group wins, it does not mean you should seek to emasculate the other because you never can tell what would happen tomorrow.

“I wish to advise that no one should mistake the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket as their pronouncements on the national leadership crisis.

“They are two separate issues that I hope we can still resolve amicably. Anyone talking of sanctioning any member of the party for fighting to protect his interest does not wish the party well.”

He said that the gale of sanctions in Osun, Ogun and Kwara states would further exacerbate the crisis in the party, adding, “the truth is, such a move that will further undermine the party and its leadership.

“Is anyone saying that if tomorrow the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court rule in favour of any of the national leaders, he should send all those in support of the other out of the party when all the 36 states are polarised along the lines of Senators Sheriff and Makarfi? No. That is not the spirit of party politics and participatory democracy.”

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Ambode is doing very well - PDP

The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has lauded what it termed the outstanding performance of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress in the state.

The spokesman for the opposition PDP chapter, Taofik Gani, said in a statement on Monday, that Ambode had taken government’s presence to many areas in the state allegedly abandoned for eight years by his predecessor, Babatunde Fashola.

The PDP advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of Fashola, who, it said, had a penchant for making unverifiable claims of achievements.

The opposition party also expressed reservation over Buhari’s decision to give three ministerial portfolios relating to engineering to Fashola, who is a lawyer.

The PDP berated Fashola for celebrating a proposed injection of 30 megawatts into the national grid, when, according to the PDP, the minister had been provided with resources enough to inject over 500 megawatts into it.


Gani said instead of celebrating, Fashola should have been sober for allegedly mismanaging the country’s power generation from “6000MW when he took over to now less than 2000MW.”

He said, “We sincerely advise President Buhari to be very wary of the deceptive skills of Fashola who will usually hype and celebrate even mediocrity.

 “Fashola has a penchant for misrepresenting facts of his achievements in government and would always rationalise obvious inadequacies.”

 “As governor of Lagos State, he enjoyed unprecedented revenues and donations, yet he left many services untouched or unfinished. He, however, deliberately funded his pro-Fashola media and commentators so much that pseudo and exaggerated achievements were ascribed to him.

 “He employed this model to promote his eight years government of mediocrity. Fashola ended up making Lagos State the biggest debtor with local and foreign debts well over N1trn.”



PUNCH

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Suspending Timi Frank is a move that might backfire - Group tells APC

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Timi Frank, yesterday condemned his National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, for setting up a 5-man disciplinary committee to investigate a petition that was written against him by a member of the party from Akwa Ibom State.



As a result of this the National Committee of Yoruba Youths (NCYY) warned the leadership of the All Progressives Congress APC against suspending Comrade Timi Frank, saying such action could backfire.
Comrade Timi Frank described the Solomon Edoja-led committee as a “kangaroo panel”, he said he would not be intimidated out of the party.

He said this in Abuja while responding to media inquiries regarding the setting-up of the investigative panel. “I am not aware of any committee. Up till now, I have not been served any notice or any letter at all. I am still waiting to receive any invitation from any panel. Frank also stated that he would not be appearing before the committee, which he said had no locus standi to try investigate him. He said: “I want to make it very clear, I will not attend to any kangaroo committee because I do not know them. “How can I go to a committee that will take their report to Oyegun to decide my fate?” On the soon-to-be announced appointment of a former Sports minister, Bolaji Abdullahi as Acting Publicity Secretary of the party, Frank said while he belongs to the same camp with Abdullahi, the right procedure has to be followed in making such appointments. “They said they want to appoint my brother and friend as spokesman of the party, and I am happy about that, but they should follow the process because it is only the national convention of the party that can make such appointment.

How can you appoint an acting publicity secretary when you have a deputy national publicity secretary? “I want to remind Oyegun not to run the party as a ministry. This is not the time when he worked as a permanent secretary. This is a political party. He cannot hire and fire at will. Why is it only my office that they want to appoint an acting spokesman”, he queried. According to him, the offices of National Welfare Officer, National Vice Chairman North East, and now Deputy National Secretary who was recently appointed as ambassador are vacant, wondering why the Odigie-Oyegun led leadership of the party should concern itself only with the vacant office of the National Publicity Secretary. Frank recalled how Julius Malema of the African National Congress ANC suffered a similar fate in South Africa, saying he has the capacity to become another Malema if he is suspended. “So I do not want us to find ourselves in the same scenario that ANC has found itself where Malema is now the bigger opposition. This is not a personal fight, but a fight to entrench internal democracy in the party”. Frank maintained that the president knows what is happening in the party “and that is why he is running his affairs the way he wants it without allowing the party to drive any of his policies”. Timi Frank‘s suspension will backfire, group warns APC The National Committee of Yoruba Youths (NCYY) has warned the leadership of the All Progressives Congress APC against suspending its Deputy National Publicity Secretary of (APC) Comrade Timi Frank, saying such action could backfire. In a statement made available to newsmen Thursday in Abuja, President of the group, Oladimeji Olayemi said the party should rather work towards solving all its internal disputes in order to be able to promptly deliver on her mandate to Nigerians. The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday inaugurated a disciplinary committee to investigate a petition which had accused Timi Frank of granting press interviews, disparaging the party. “We, by this statement call on Chief Oyegun and this cabal to immediately put an end to the continuous blackmails, harassment and intimidation of Comrade Timi Frank. “We wish to inform Nigerians, APC party faithful across the nation and particularly all peace and fact-seeking ones that there is no established legal or political precedent for the charade that Chief Oyegun and this cabal are currently planning to embark upon by stampeding an elected party official from his duty post through illegality and incitement”, the group stated. ‘Frank accused of granting press interviews’ Meanwhile, the Solomon Edoja five-man disciplinary committee said it is investigating Mr Frank for allegedly granting press interviews “that have brought the party into disrepute”. Briefing journalists Thursday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, Edoja said the panel has already sent an invitation by courier to Mr Frank‘s known official address in Maitama.



Source : VanguardNgr

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