PDP Chairmanship Aspirant Gbenga Daniel, Others “Side Step” Controversial Endorsement Of Contenders Bode George, Tunde Adeniran By “BOT” Made Up Of Same Men

Ex-Governor of Ogun state, Gbenga Daniel has responded to the reports of a “controversial” endorsement handed to fellow contenders for the position of the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by the Board of Trustees of the party from the South West region.

The “BOT” in a statement signed by a member Shuaib Oyedokun on Saturday had endorsed Bode George, Tunde Adeniran and Taoheed Adedoja as candidates of the region for the chairmanship election which comes up during the National Convention scheduled for December 9.

Ironically, endorsed aspirants Bode George and Adeniran are both members of the “BOT” which took the controversial decision other stakeholders are urging party faithfuls to disregard.

Checks revealed other members of the BOT such as Yekini Adeojo and Aduke Maina have distanced selves from the announcements.

Even, the only People’s Democratic Party Governor in the region, Ayodele Fayose was reportedly also unaware of what is now tagged the BOT members concerned “self-help” decisions.

In responding to the development, Daniel – currently on a nationwide tour of drumming up support for his ambition – simply continued with his campaign.

“He knows the decision is meant to be a distraction and carries no weight, he understands the political gimmicks involved and so has chosen to focus on the task at hand without losing steam” a source disclosed.

However, in order to guide his supporters and party faithful properly, the campaign organization of the former governor issued a statement on the development.

The statement signed by media consultant Steve Oliyide and released on Sunday, November 5 reads in part “Our attention has been drawn to a document endorsing 3 Aspirants for the PDP National Chairmanship race, without OGD, purportedly signed by Chief Oyedokun on behalf of the SW caucus of the BOT of our Party ahead of the Dec 9 National convention.

Our teaming Supporters should kindly disregard such documents which can best be described as the personal opinion of the Writer and it’s clearly not well thought out, if at all such a document is authenticated.

Smarting from a disastrous electoral outing in the last two and a half years, our party is just recovering from acts of impunity and unilateral actions like this and never again do we pray for such as we move on to repackage the Party.

For the avoidance of doubt, Otunba Gbenga Daniel is currently on a Nationwide tour of all the 36 states chapters of our Party consulting with Leaders and potential delegates, preaching the gospel of internal democracy and returning the Party to the people at the grassroots….”

The former governor who appears the most visible campaigner for the position of the PDP Chairman was reportedly “campaigning” in Kano at the time of the Press statements, after visits to Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and Jigawa.

The controversial endorsement by the Southwest “BOT” has attracted harsh reactions from different arms of the PDP, especially the youth wings – and particularly from popular groups such as the “North West Solidarity Forum”.

Non-political association, Yoruba Patriots Movement also took a position against the “decision”.

Checks revealed Chief Shuaib Oyedokun, the BOT member who made the announcement has turned the target of a barrage of hard knocks on and offline.

According to an insider “from what i gather, the announcement by Oyedokun was a ruse and has been exposed as such…the position of PDP chairman is open to all contenders and plan to hold an election for all those who have indicated interest remains unchanged” an insider.

Other’s the controversial decision was aimed at include aspirants Jimi Agbaje, Rasheed Ladoja, Wale Oladipo and Akin- Deko Akintayo.