WITH the July 22 local government election around the
corner, this may not be the best of times for the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, in Lagos State. The two factions laying claim to the party structure in
the state, Moshood Salvador and Segun Adewale are at each other’s throat as a
result of an alliance being entered into with the Labour Party, LP. The Moshood
Salvador-led faction had at a press conference announced an alliance with the
LP for the council elections. Salvador, who leads the Ahmed Makarfi faction of
the PDP, said that the alliance was a temporary arrangement, and that all PDP
candidates for the polls would contest on the LP platform. Sheriff and Makarfi
Salvador said: “What we are announcing today is alliance with Labour Party to
enable our candidates to participate in the elections. Political alliance is an
agreement for co-operation between political parties on common agenda, often
for the purpose of contesting elections. This alliance does not mean we are
leaving the party. We are PDP anytime. We only have a pre-election alliance.
This is not the first time we are having such in the country’s political
history.” While appealing to party loyalists in the state to buy into the
PDP-LP alliance, he restated that it was an alliance and not defection. He
said: “It is an alliance. We have not defected to another party; we have not
declared for another party and we have not dumped the PDP.” Adewale reacts
Faulting the alliance, Segun Adewale, who heads the Senator Ali Modu
Sheriff-led faction, described the step as unfortunate and uncalled for.
Adewale, also referred to as Areoland claimed that his faction made efforts to
accommodate the other faction but Salvador frustrated the moves. The factional
chairman urged Salvador to return to the legally recognised authorities, the
money his faction realised from sale of nomination forms to aspirants on the
platform of PDP. He said that he would set up a disciplinary committee to probe
the alliance and mete out sanctions to anybody found culpable. “How can you buy
nomination forms on the platform of PDP and defect to Labour Party for the
elections. It is a clear illegal act”, he said.
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