Lagos Lawmaker Faults PDP Ward Congresses  

Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been urged to intervene in what is happening in the ward congresses of the party in Lagos State.

Making the call in an interview with reporters on Sunday, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Oladipupo Olorunrinu faulted the process being used to elect executive members of the party across the state.

Olorunrinu, the only PDP lawmaker in Lagos State, accused the Returning Officer of the PDP for the elections in the state, Deacon Austin Umahi, who is the chairman of the electoral committee which came from Abuja of giving members of the House of Representatives from the party in the state an opportunity to choose 70% of the party excos across the local governments in the state.

According to him, “We are not going to accept such a method. I am the face of the PDP in the Lagos State House of Assembly as seven out of eight of us who came in on the platform of the PDP have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). I supported Senator Makarfi, when most of the members of the party, including the House of Reps members, supported Senator Ali Modu Sheriff during the factional leadership tussle in the party.

“This has never happened before. How could they give House of Reps members 70% of the excos and give 30% to the people in the local governments?

“The party leadership at the national level should understand that this is not acceptable. The so-called House of Reps members have never been to the secretariat of the party. What Austin did is absurd and it is not acceptable to us,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that as the only member of the state house of assembly from the party in the state, he is the only face of the party in the state, and called on the party’s leaders to sample the opinion of the people on this.

He stated that Mr Austin, the chairman of the panel himself never met with the grassroots, and that instead he left the responsibility to his panel members, while he (Mr Austin) chose to strike a deal with the house of rep members from Lagos.

The politician warned the leadership of the party to remember that Lagos is a state of over 24 million people and that more than half of the population of the people were with the party.

He however, called on the party’s leaders to cancel whatever deal they might have struck with the reps members and allow the process to be as democratic as people in the interest of the party.