The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has mandated the Bukola Saraki-led Peace, Reconciliation and Strategy Committee to wade into the power tussle in the southwest chapter of the party that has pitted the former of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose against the incumbent governor of Oyo State, Mr. Seyi Makinde.
The committee has the former governors of Gombe, Cross River and Katsina states, Messrs Mr. Hassan Dankwambo, Liyel Imoke and Ibrahim Shema respectively; former House of Representatives minority leader, Ms. Mulikat Akande as well as the former secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Anyim Pius Anyim, as members.
Makinde and Fayose are locked in a supremacy battle that has polarised the opposition party in the zone as state chairmen of PDP and others pitched tent with either camp.
Fayose, it was learnt, is challenging Makinde’s claim to being the zonal leader of the party on the account that he’s the highest elected PDP leader in the region.
It was learnt that the NWC led by the party’s national chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus, is worried that the feud between Fayose and Makinde could impair the party’s efforts to win the zone in the 2023 general election.
Spokesman for the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said the six-member committee had got its marching orders to resolve the leadership crisis in the zone.
The supremacy battle, which has lingered for some months, has degenerated as aides of the two party chiefs engaged in a war of words on the social media.
It would be recalled that Fayose said recently that Makinde was not the PDP leader in the southwest.
He contended that leadership should be earned and not for anyone to appropriate because of positional influence.
The former governor spoke when he received prominent members of the party who paid him a solidarity visit.
The delegation was led by the representative of Ondo South senatorial zone, Mr. Nicholas Tofowomo.
“Governor Makinde is not my leader. He is my follower. Respect should beget respect. I have been a warrior. They thought I will be with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission now. But, I am surviving,” Fayose had said.
