BREAKING: Fayose, Ladoja, George, others meet over PDP chairmanship to agree on southwest candidate

- Governor Fayose has held meeting
with Chief Bode George, Ladoja others
over PDP national chairmanship
candidate - He said that the meeting was held to
fine-tune how the party would present a
consensus candidate from the southwest
during its next national convention - Ladoja who was the former governor
of Oyo state said that he has officially
return to PDP Some South-west chieftains of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) have begun moves to
agree on a candidate for the national
chairmanship position of the party for the
region ahead of its national convention in
December

Punch reports that at a meeting convened by
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state,
which was held at the Renaissance Hotel in
Lagos on Monday night, October 16, the party
chieftains agreed to hold several other
meetings to present a common front at the convention.

Governor Ayo Fayose, Ladoja, George, others
meet over PDP chairmanship to agree on
southwest candidate. Photo credit: Punch Confirming that he had convened the meeting,
Fayose said he had called them for the
meeting to “to share aspirations with them,
find a common ground and go to the
convention as an indivisible and united”
grouP

The governor said it would be wrong for the
South-West PDP to “go to the convention like
people without cohesion”. He said there would be subsequent meetings
which would involve other key stakeholders
of the party in the region to decide on a
candidate among the aspirants vying for the
position in the region. The national chairmanship position of the PDP
had been zoned to the South-West and there
has been a silent battle among a number of
the party’s chieftains in the region over
who should get the position. Those who have declared their interest in the
position include George; a former governor
of Ogun state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; and a
former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde
Adeniran.

Both Daniel and Adeniran were not at the
meeting, but Fayose expressed confidence
that they would be at subsequent ones. He said Daniel had sent a message that he
could not make it to the venue of the meeting
because he was held up, adding that he
believed that both he and Adeniran would
also be at the next meeting. Ladoja, who contested for the 2015
governorship election in Oyo state on the
platform of Accord Party, said he was
officially back in the PDP. Ladoja was governor of Oyo State under the
PDP platform before he defected to Accord
Party. At the meeting, the former Oyo State
governor said he was still consulting with
people on whether to also contest for the
national chairmanship position of the PDP,
adding that by the end of the week, his
decision on the matter would be made public. Oladipupo said: “PDP has only one governor
in the Southwest in the person of Fayose. He
is our rallying point and he is the leader of
the party in the Southwest, and more so; he
is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors’
Forum.

“For this reason, he must be our rallying
point to make our decision known at the
national convention. We endorse his calling
this meeting and many more with more
stakeholders before the convention. It is
privilege that we have him as our governor.” George, who also endorsed the meeting, said:
“It gladdens my heart that all is not lost in
the South-West. Those that say that we are
like a rudderless ship will now see that we
are a solid ship.” Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state said Nigeria is more divided than ever before and the country’s unity is
under threat. Ayodele Fayose announces his presidential
bid, expects an honest victory over Buhari - on NAIJ.com TV