Osun PDP Crisis: Oyinlola, Oyedokun, Others Wade In

 

ELDERS and Board of Trustees (BoT) members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have waded into the fresh leadership crisis rocking the Osun State chapter of the party. 

This is coming as five of the governorship aspirants of the party have written to PDP national leadership on the existence of two chairmen of the party in the state. 

MuchTalksBlog gathered that a former governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and a one-time deputy national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Shuaibu Ogundokun, are the arrowheads of the peace initiative. 

But, it was learnt that four separate attempts to resolve the crisis were stalled, due to the absence of some concerned political actors involved in the feud. 

Two key issues: authentic chairman of the Osun PDP chapter and governorship ticket of the party for the June 2022 election, underline the imbroglio. 

Two persons are laying claim to the position of state chairman after a court declaration on the tussle over the office. 

One of the camps is said to be loyal to a former member of the eighth Senate and governorship candidate of the party in 2018, Senator Ademola Adeleke. 

He is among the six party faithful seeking to be the candidate of the PDP for the governorship poll this year, with Oyinlola, Oyedokun and other party elders trying to broker peace and arrive at a consensus in the buildup to the party primary. 

Olagunsoye reportedly invited the Board of Trustees (BoT) members from Osun State, party elders and the five governorship contestants to Okuku his home town, for a meeting to resolve the dispute. 

But some figures central to the acrimony failed to show up for the meeting. 

The convener of the Okuku parley the source added, travelled abroad, with the responsibility to sustain the peace effort resting on the shoulders of Alhaji Oyedokun who invited the aggrieved members to his home town, Inisa, for talks. 

Again, the attempt was not successful as the main actors failed to show up. 

“For the past two weeks, we have held a series of meetings. About three weeks ago, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola first called a meeting of BoT members and elders so that we could resolve the issue of chairmanship and avoid conducting double primaries. 

“The Adeleke group came to the first meeting. When Oyinlola travelled outside the country, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun called another peace meeting for his home town, Inisa. All the aspirants were there except Ademola Adeleke. So, the leaders could not discuss anything. They convened a third meeting, also for Inisa at the instance of Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun. It suffered a similar fate. 

“But penultimate Tuesday, Oyinlola called a fresh meeting of the elders and others. All the aspirants didn’t attend again,” the source said. 

According to the source, the meetings were also initiated to resolve all issues surrounding the executive of the party in the state, following a controversial PDP congress PDP held in the state during the tenure of Prince Uche Secondus as the national chairman of the party. 

The source said the camps to the rift needed to harmonise their structures or the party hold a fresh ward congress to pave way for an amicable resolution. 

He disclosed that the PDP national vice chairman (South), Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, also intervened in the feud because the leader of the PDP in the South-West, Governor Seyi Makinde was outside the country.