Current moves to unify the Ogun state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have created fresh tension in Senator Buruji Kashamu’s faction as some of his allies declare interest for a united chapter, reports ‘Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor
Palpable tension gripped the camps of the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate in the 2019 governorship election, Senator Buruji Kashamu, all through the week as the crisis rocking the state chapter of the party appears to be taking some queer turns that are certainly unfavourable for Kashamu and his supporters in their quest to retain control of the machineries of the opposition party ahead of future elections.
Since its defeat by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the gubernatorial polls in 2011, the PDP in Ogun state has been enmeshed in an intra-party power struggle that kept escalating with no end in sight. Many of the party’s bigwigs in the state, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Speaker Dimeji Bankole and former Governor Gbenga Daniel, were edged out of the party by Senator Kashamu and his camps.
The current face-off in the ten year old crisis has been between Kashamu and a former House of Representatives member, Hon. Ladi Adebutu. The duo, formerly political allies, fell out in the build up to the 2019 geenral eelctions and have been at loggerheads over who controls of the party in Ogun. While Adebutu enjoys the backing of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, Kashamu has consistently enjoyed the grace of the courts in keeping the Bayo Dayo-led executive in charge of the party.
Until recently, Kashamu and his supporters were no doubt having the upper hand in the tussle. Just as they successfully expelled, Obasanjo, Bankole and Daniel, among many other erstwhile PDP topnotches, from the troubled party in the last one decade, they were looking good in their determination to sack Adebutu and all those loyal to him from the PDP in Ogun state. And given the manner in which Kashamu snatched the party’s gubernatorial ticket from the seemingly firm grips of Adebutu last year, not many people gave the latter much chance in the struggle.
But that was before the current twist of events within the party which started as the Dayo-led faction, loyal to Kashamu, was preparing for another congress to elect new ward, local government and state executive officers. Though a Federal high court sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, has restrained the Dayo-led faction from going ahead with the congresses scheduled to commence on Saturday, March 7th, 2020, the Kashamu group went ahead with their plans. The congress which kicked off as planned at the ward level, took place in several parts of the state, especially in many wards of Ogun East senatorial district.
Successive blows
Kashamu and his think tank were still brainstorming on how to side-step the hurdle created by the court verdict stopping the congresses, when the croup suffered two unexpected political blows in quick succession. Like a surprise blow to the scrotum in a boxing contest, some prominent members of the faction, led by the Secretary of the Dayo-led executive committee, Semiu Sodipo, appeared in Abuja at a peace meeting with the Adebutu faction. The surprise parley, The Nation gathered, was convened by the NWC of the party without Kashamu’s knowledge.
Sodipo represented the Kashamu faction, alongside a couple of other executives. PDP’s National Chairman, Uche Secondus was in attendance as well as many prominent chieftains of the Adebutu faction. At the end of the meeting, representatives of the two factions agreed to move the party forward at all cost. And to Kashamu’s consternation, Sodipo and others with him announced that they were joining forces with Adebutu to have fresh congresses. They agreed with the NWC that the congresses earlier conducted by Kashamu’s camp are illegal.
And as if the ‘defection’ of Sodipo and others were not enough blow for Kashamu, in an unexpected move, the Ogun state office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC Stat) said the electoral body will abide with the decision of the court that the March 7 ward congress remains null and void. The agency has constantly recognized the Dayo-led PDP leadership as the authentic in the state, citing subsisting court judgements to back its decisions. So, its last decision not to recognize the actions of the faction came as a rude shock to Kashamu, The Nation learnt.
Ogun INEC, in a letter dated March 10, 2020, and addressed to the commission’s National Secretary, said the March 7 PDP congress did not hold in the state. “Further to the Notification Letter from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the conduct of its congresses and subsequent court order restraining concerned parties from taking any action, I write to confirm that the scheduled ward congresses for Saturday, 7th March 2020 did not hold in Ogun State, strictly complying to the said court order,” the letter read in part.
Tension mounts
Obviously rattled by the development and under pressure to react, the Kashamu faction wasted no time in announcing the suspension of Sodipo and his co-travellers in search of peace. Aside that, the peace-seekers were promptly labeled as ‘renegades’, “who collected money from the opposition to sell out the PDP machineries in the state to a moneybag.” Of course, while announcing the suspension, Dayo debunked the claim that the Kashamu faction is teaming up with Adebutu as Sodipo and others were not representing the group.
“For the meeting held in Abuja, we are not part of it. Our former secretary who was present there had been suspended before now but we have been tackling that in-house and that is why we haven’t told you people. They are aware of what is happening and if care is not taken, they will be taken to court for contempt of court at the end of the day,” Dayo said. Responding, Sodipo dismissed his suspension from the party, saying peace has come to the party with or without Kashamu and his supporters.
While speaking on his decision to dump Kashamu’s faction, Sodipo said he is motivated by the need to return the opposition party to its winning ways in the state. According to him, the abysmal performance of the party in successive general elections in the state was because the State Working Committee, under the influence of Senator Kashamu, has been working in cross purposes with the national leadership of the party. He further revealed that Kashamu’s faction has divided for a while now over whether it should support ongoing peace efforts or remain adamant.
“We looked at the storms that had befallen us three times, 2011, 2015 and 2019. We discovered that it was lack of corporation with the national office. We then decided to go to Abuja and express our readiness to work with the national. We now decided on our own that after obeying the court orders three times and failed those three times, we want to listen to the dictate of our national secretariat. We have decided to take instructions from the national secretariat, we would follow their guidelines and timetable and the path they want us to take,” he said.
Speaking further, he added that “we have gone past that stage of unilateral suspensions. We are now working towards peace. The working committee members are 14 in number. And I can tell you that as we speak now, we have 10 members on our side. So, you will agree with me that they can’t even call a working committee meeting. They know it, and at a stakeholders’ meeting you can’t take any decision that will affect PDP as a party. They can’t even suspend an ex officio not to talk of a state secretary.”
Killer punch?
Few days later, observers of the politics of the state were still wondering how Kashamu will handle the desire of Sodipo and his supporters to unify the party when news filtered in that the former Senator representing Ogun East may have fallen out with Bayo Dayo, the chairman of his faction of the PDP. Amidst the uncertainty, Kashamu’s faction announced the suspension of Dayo, accuses him of anti-party activities. It was soon gathered that somehow, Dayo, Kashamu’s strongest political ally in the last decade, has also opted to support Secondus’ peace efforts contrary to the dictates of his faction’s leader and financier.
“What happened in the last couples of days is capable of ending the political career of most of our leaders, especially Senator Kashamu. It is unimaginable that Dayo, of all people can betray us. He has benefited so much from the leader and the party. Sodipo’s action was seen as bad, but Dayo’s own is the worst. These people are ready to kill PDP in Ogun state. They know there will be no PDP in Ogun without Kashamu but because of their greed and selfishness, they are ready to sell the party to people who lack what is needed,” a source told The Nation.
The source also added that the worry within the camp now is that with Dayo and Sodipo on the other side, it will be difficult for Kashamu to continue to secure the court victories as well as INEC submissions that helped him control the party all these years. “Sincerely, it is a big issue. Those who planned this really got at us and we are worried. Secondus now have the chairman and Secretary on his side in his plot to hand over the PDP in Ogun state to the Adebutus. They have found a way of killing the party,” he added.
As if rubbing salt into an open wound, Dayo finally announced at the weekend that Kashamu should either move with the wind of reconciliation blowing in the party in the state or be left behind. Engr. He said it is time for Kashamu to stop “acting as the Sole Proprietor or defacto owner of Ogun PDP. He added that those who announced his suspension “were only doing paid job for their master, Sen Buruji Kashamu” saying his alleged removal is the height of illegality, and as such,null and void. He also revealed that the Senator had told him to back off from the ongoing reconciliation moves with the Adebutu group.
While reacting to his suspension by some members of the executive of the party in the state, Dayo, who insisted that he remained the party chairman because he could only be punished by National Executive Committee of the party, also accused Kashamu, of attempting to bribe him with N10m to compromise the party congresses in the state. “They (Kashamu’s men) came to my house day before yesterday with N10m; they told me to take the money in order to sign their papers. The paper is a letter to INEC telling them we have concluded the congresses of the state.
“I resisted, I said I have written a letter to the lawyer that I do not need his services anymore because we are going to unite ourselves and I cannot sign the other letter telling INEC that we have concluded the congresses. I am still the state chairman, they are just deceiving themselves. They cannot suspend me. All the lies will not help them. The truth about all these issues is that I am making a move to reconcile with the other group in our party in Ogun State so that the party can move forward,” the embattled party leader said.
In his own reaction, Kashamu described Dayo as a betrayer who was removed as PDP chairman in Ogun state for allegedly trying to sell the party’s structure. . “We have the evidence of the meeting at Equity Hotel, Ijebu Ode, where Dayo collected money to sell the Ogun State structures of the PDP to Adebutu family. What they should realise is that they have been duped. Dayo has no power to transfer the structures of the party to anyone. How can anyone think that he can sell a political structure comprising many interests and major stakeholders for a mere N100 million? He cannot,” he claimed.
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