PDP crisis deepens as Oyinlola, Oladipo battle for deputy chair’s seat in Southwest

The leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is causing tension among party members in the southwest, as leaders of the party failed to reach an agreement on the seat of Deputy National Chairman zoned to Osun state.

Two chieftains of the party, former Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and ex-National Secretary of the party, Prof Wale Oladipo are vying for the position.

Party members are believed to be divided over the nomination of Oladipo for the position by the Sunday Bisi-led Osun State chapter of the party, following a stakeholders’ meeting held at the party’s state secretariat in Osogbo on Thursday, October 14, 2021.

But on Friday, some party leaders led by a lawmaker representing Osun East in the Senate, Francis Fadahunsi, threw their weight behind Oyinlola for the post of the party’s Deputy National Chairman.

In a statement on Friday, Fadahunsi said, “The decision of all the leaders of the PDP from all the 30 local government areas of Osun State and the Ife East Area Office, Modakeke to adopt Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as the consensus candidate of entire Osun PDP members and leaders for the post of the Deputy National Chairman is a welcome development and a right step in the right direction which all lovers of the party in the state must adopt.

“The fact that the entire South-West leaders have adopted Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the region’s consensus candidate as the Deputy National Chairman of the party makes the adoption of Oyinlola by his state party leaders a good and sensible decision.”

According to Punch, a member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, who is also from Osun state believes Oyinlola is a better candidate for the job.

Oyedokun disclosed that stakeholders at a meeting convened by the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, agreed to zone the position to Osun.

He said the agreement was based on the fact that the current occupant of the position hails from the Ogun/Lagos sub zone and the outgoing national officer from Ondo/Ekiti sub zone while the sub zone seat left is Oyo/Osun.

He said, “Those of us who are elders here and are statutory delegates to the convention believe that with the division we have been nursing in Osun State for the past three years, Oyinlola seems to stand out as somebody who can be a rallying point to bring the two factions together.

“That is the essence of it. He never took sides. Even some of us were alleged to have taken sides. This issue of division is about the governorship seat. All those who are picking Prof Wale Oladipo belong to an aspirant and they go around disrupting things. That is the way I see it.

“We can’t foreclose the possibility of having another meeting here in the South-West PDP before the convention. We can’t foreclose it because we want peace.”

Also, other party leaders in the southwest have reportedly expressed their support in favour of Oyinlola.

Some of the leaders include, a former PDP governorship candidate in Osun State, Senator Olu Alabi, the Secretary of the Osun State PDP Elders Council, Segun Odekunmi and a former Osun State Deputy Governor, Olusola Obada.