Nigeria News
Buruji Kashamu Explains Why PDP Lost In Ondo State
Buruji Kashamu
Senator Buruji Kashamu who was recently expelled from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has explained why his political party, the party was floored in the just concluded governorship election in Ondo State.
NaijaNews.com reports that Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, won the election as a landslide victory after polling 244, 842 votes to beat his closest challenger, Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party who polled 150, 380 votes.
Reacting to the colossal defeat of the party in the poll, the senator also slammed the Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party over the statement credited to its spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, where he threatened to sanction those in the camp of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
Kashamu, in a statement he personally signed, said that no one should mistake the pronouncements of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket as their judgement on the party’s national leadership crisis.
The party chieftain, who was recently suspended by the Ogun State chapter said, “We told Governor Mimiko that after eight years in office, the good people of Ondo State would resist the injustice of producing a successor from the same senatorial district where he hails from.
“It is not that Jegede is not a good material. He is urbane, intelligent and smart. He would have probably won had he come from any other senatorial zone than Mimiko’s.
“We told Mimiko that the people would not take anything that would look like a third term for him and his senatorial district. He would not listen.
“Despite being the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Mimiko turned himself into Fayose’s puppet, allowing Fayose to lead him by the nose.”
Reacting to the recent claim by the spokesman for the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that the party would impose severe sanction on Sheriff and members of his faction, Kashamu said such action would fail.
He added, “No one is afraid of any sanction so long as we know that we are fighting to protect the interest of our people.
“A political party is a congregation of people with a common goal yet with various interests. In every political setting, people align and realign with the bloc or group where they feel their interest is better protected and guaranteed.
“If your bloc or group wins, it does not mean you should seek to emasculate the other because you never can tell what would happen tomorrow.
“I wish to advise that no one should mistake the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket as their pronouncements on the national leadership crisis.
“They are two separate issues that I hope we can still resolve amicably. Anyone talking of sanctioning any member of the party for fighting to protect his interest does not wish the party well.”
“Is anyone saying that if tomorrow the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court rule in favour of any of the national leaders, he should send all those in support of the other out of the party when all the 36 states are polarised along the lines of Senators Sheriff and Makarfi? No. That is not the spirit of party politics and participatory democracy.”
