Thursday, 29 June 2017

PDP: Makarfi, Sheriff Groups tango over alliance with Labour



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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