Unless there are new facts, Kashamu is cleared of drug-related offences —Adekoya

Chief Leke Adekoya, an Afenifere chieftain, was secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State under the late Ganiyu Dawodu. Now a top shot of the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party in Senator Buruji Kashamu’s faction, he speaks with newsmen on the crisis in the party, allegation of voodoo politics, Kashamu’s extradition saga, among others. DARE ADEKANMBI brings excerpts:

 

SOME officials of the governing, All Progressives Congress (APC) ruling party have described the current socio-economic situation as a direct byproduct of the mismanagement of the country and its resources by the PDP for the 16 years it was in the saddle.

That is not correct. If you look at the way the recession came about, it happened suddenly. If it was as a result of mismanagement, it would be appearing gradually. The recession we are going through in the country today is a result of self-inflicted injury caused by President Muhammadu Buhari. When he came, he immediately began full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) conceived by the last administration. He ordered that all domiciliary accounts operated by investors who are transacting businesses in forex should be closed such that they are not able to save or make withdrawals from their domiciliary accounts.  This prompted the portfolio investors, who are highly liquid, to withdraw between $50 and $75 billion from the economy within a month. This contributed to the crash of the naira and created dollar scarcity. The result of that policy is the sudden and unprecedented devaluation of the Naira. Because our economy is dollar-dependent, the manufacturers ran into troubled waters as a result of dollar scarcity and everything came down crashing.

 

Your party has been pronounced dead in view of what the series of crises confronting the PDP has done to its body and soul. Could you tell us when it will be buried in Ogun State, your state?

That is illogical. As far as Nigeria is concerned today, no party, not even the ruling APC, has the kind of structure that PDP has. I agree with you that there is crisis in PDP. The crisis in APC is bigger, but not yet known to the public because the party is in charge of the Federal Government which they have been using to manage the crisis. The crisis in PDP is prominent because there is no longer a Federal Government to manage it by calling everybody together to resolve things as family affairs.

Every human organisation is bound to experience conflict because there are people with diverse interests in such organisation. There are several conflicting interests flowing along the same path, and from that came the crisis in PDP. The issue is not about whether there is crisis, but how to manage it. That one is ongoing. There is a high-level contact that is going on in PDP now and I believe common sense will prevail at the end of the day. The party will bounce back because it if the hope of the masses. We have had the opportunity of a comparative analysis between the past government and the current one. The statistics, without mentioning them, are there for all to see.

 

Ogun PDP is polarised into factions- Buruji Kashamu and Ladi Adebutu faction. Is there any hope for reconciliation?

There are no factions in Ogun PDP. There are groups which are even more than two. Kashamu has a group; Ladi Adebutu has his own group; Dimeji Bankole has another group; Gbenga Daniel has a group; Jubril Martins Kuye has a group, and so on. The bedrock of any political party are these groups because what we use groups for in politics is for mobilisation. In politics, nobody negotiates from the position of weakness. The people in politics are there for either for the interest of some people or their personal interest. For you to be strong in politics, you have to show you have the number, because politics is a game of number. So, the fundamental question always arises: who has the majority? It is he who has the majority that will call the shots at the end of the day? Those who have the majority will take the larger share of the party structure.

I have said there is no faction in Ogun PDP for three reasons: one, when the party congresses were to be conducted, we did ours at the secretariat of the party. Prior to that, a letter was written to INEC and all the security operatives to come and witness the events. The INEC officials from Abuja and the NWC were at the venues of our own congresses and all the security operatives were there too. They all signed as living witnesses of the peaceful conduct of the congresses. Nothing can therefore be more authentic than this. If thereafter, some other groups that I have recognised, refused to participate in the congresses when no law barred them from taking part and putting their own candidates forward and after the election they are now saying they are a faction with separate excos, that is not known or recognised in law.

 

But the Ahmed Makarfi caretaker-led National Committee wrote a letter to OGSIEC affirming Sikirulai Ogundele, as the authentic leader of the real executives?

I am aware of the letter you are talking about. But that letter was later withdrawn. Before the council election, the same Markafi had written a letter to Bayo Dayo and up till today, if the Markafi group is holding any meeting, it is Dayo that attends. Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff also wrote a letter to Dayo. Having seen the background to the emergence of Bayo Dayo exco, nobody or institution can do otherwise than to recognise him as the authentic leader of the real excos.

 

There is a charge of disloyalty to the PDP against Kashamu by those who say he professes PDP in the day time and at night, hobnobs with the APC. They even said he got the contract for the supply of the cars purchased by Governor Ibikunle Amosun for Ogun State lawmakers in the governor’s first term.

That is in the realm of speculation. With whom is he hobnobbing in APC?

 

With Governor Amosun and others?

An incident has just happened now to dispel that lie. The state government went to demolish Kashamu’s constituency project, a health centre being reconstructed in Ijebu North Local Government Area of the state. So, where is the evidence he has been hobnobbing with Amosun? It is not correct.

The truth of the matter is that some of these people in different parties were schoolmates, friends and business associates somewhere. One of them now becomes president or governor, does it mean that people, who had been his schoolmates or friends, should not be patronised for a legitimate business deal that he is eminently qualified to handle. But, the moment such business transaction begins to generate some misgivings, the most honourable thing to do is to withdraw from further deals, no matter the level of relationship. And I think that was what happened.

Like you have rightly said, Kashamu’s company, which is being managed by people, got the contract you talked about from Amosun. It is those managing the company that had the contact and pushed the deal through. But unfortunately, in the board of directorship of the company, Kashamu remains the chairman. Immediately the issue started generating misinformation, he directed that the company should never do any further deal with Amosun or the state government. However, that does not suggest that if he has relationship with the governor, he should not sustain it, provided it will not have any negative backlash. There is nobody that Amosun is fighting in Ogun than Kashamu.

 

The state government said Kashamu didn’t get approval before embarking on the project; that the centre belongs to the council and the state.

Which approval are they talking about? Have you ever seen the Federal Government take bulldozers to destroy federal roads built by state governments? We are talking about development. Does it matter who brings it, whether Federal, state or council? Let us assume the state wants to use the project to fight a political battle, what is the normal thing for them to do? They should have sent the town planning authorities to mark the place and order that work should stop, write the executor of the project to appear and show reason why the project should not be demolished.

 

What do you make of the claim in some quarters that Senator Kashamu is in politics to frustrate attempts at getting him extradited to the United States to face drug-related charges against him?

You will agree with me that Senator Kashamu had existed in Nigeria prior to his joining politics and becoming a Senator and nobody had made any move to extradite him.