Lagos PDP insists on support for Makarfi

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may still be far from being resolved as the Lagos State chapter of the party on Thursday insisted on its support for the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, declaring that the party was working as one in the state.

This is just as the party said it was already initiating the process of declaring vacant the seats of six of its members who defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in the Lagos State House of Assembly.

The decisions came as part of resolutions adopted by members who gathered at the General Assembly meeting which was held at the PDP Secretariat at Sogunle in Lagos.

The State Chairman of PDP, Hon. Moshood Salvador, who addressed at the gathering, stressed that the leader of the party in the state, Chief Bode George, the entire state executive and members of the party were solidly behind Senator Markarfi appointed as the caretaker chairman of the party.

“The entire party structures in the state including our leader, Chief Bode George are solidly behind Ahmed Makarfi, who was appointed as caretaker chairman of the party in Port Harcourt last year,” he said.

Salvador, while commending the National Assembly for accepting E-voting in the new amendment of the Electoral Act, contended that the
amendment would restrict state electoral commission from conducting local government elections without providing a level playing ground.

“The new electoral amendment is cheering news to those of you who are aspiring to contest the forth coming local government election and the 2019 general elections in the country,” he said.

Salvador, who recalled that the party suffered a political setback in Ibeju-Lekki local government area of the state, however, assured that the differences had since been resolved, saying the party structure at the council level was now fully in place.

Also speaking at the event, the party’s state publicity secretary, Mr Taofik Gani, disclosed that the party was already initiating the process of declaring vacant the seats of six out of eight of its members who crossed to the APC in the state Assembly.

According to him, the party is getting set any time from now to make formal application to the necessary authorities for their seats to be declared vacant, saying the PDP wanted the lawmakers to come and test their popularity in their various constituencies.

“We are doing our homework and we are going to make our formal application to the necessary authorities for their seats to be declared vacant. We want them to come and test their popularity in their various constituencies.

“If truly they are popular, they should vacate their seats and not even contest their seats that will be declared vacant in court, but come out to come and test their popularity in an election,” he said.