Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Oyo East Local Government Area of Oyo State, on Friday, protested against purported plans by the party leadership to resort to consensus in choosing the party’s candidates for the May 15 local government election in the state.
The party members who stormed the Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, with placards to drive home their demands, warned that what it called an imposition will spell doom for the party.
Chanting “We want primary”, the protesters loudly warned that the Oyo PDP was at risk of losing members should the party insist on a consensus option in choosing the party’s candidates for the local government election.
The protesters led Mr Lukman Adeyanju, advocated primary election as against any form of selection of their candidate by a select group of persons.
According to Adeyanju, three aspirants had emerged a process and were billed to contest in a direct primary until the consensus option was introduced.
It will be recalled that the Oyo PDP, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Kunmi Mustapha, had on Thursday announced the setting up of the five-man committee led by state organising secretary, Mr Taiwo Alagbe.
Adeyanju said PDP members were shocked that the party’s primary earlier scheduled for Thursday was abruptly postponed while a committee was set up interface with aspirants across the 33 local government areas of the state.
Adeyanju said, “We want primary. We obtained form; we went through screening, and pass through every exercise that makes us qualified to contest in the primary election. Three of us have been passed to contest the primary of the party for the local government election.
“At the early hours of Thursday, we heard the primary has been cancelled and postponed for 72 hours. We then heard that a committee has been set up to oversee the selection of the candidates. We don’t want selection. “This party has the name democratic and should be democratic. We want primary in our local government. Governor Seyi Makinde himself emerged as the party’s governorship candidate defeating Senator Ayo Adeseun in a primary election so we want primary for the local government election.
“We beg the governor because we want peace to reign in Oyo State. This local government election is the first election that the governor will oversee and he should not use this to disrupt the party. We love the party not that we are getting any benefit. If there is a resort to imposition, we will leave the party. We are not bound to the party and can leave at any time.”
Speaking in the same vein, Mrs Simbiatu Jimoh warned that the PDP was at risk of losing members to opposition parties should the Oyo PDP leadership go ahead with consensus against primaries.
Jimoh said, “We don’t want imposition in Oyo East local government. We want to use our thumb to make our voice heard on our chosen candidates. Imposition will destroy the PDP in Oyo and the Makinde government. People are already leaving the PDP for the APC and it shouldn’t be so. All we want is primary election.”
Before the protesters left, Chief of Staff to the Oyo State Governor, Chief Bisi Ilaka called for calm, expressing the belief that the party secretariat will see to their grievances.
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