From Omoniyi Salaudeen
A former minister of transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has vowed to muster every support necessary to fight and ensure that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is pulled down and buried, if those conspiring to change the zoning arrangement conceding the position of national chairmanship of the party to the Southwest fail to retrace their steps.
He gave this warning yesterday at a press conference held at Ikoyi office of the former deputy national chairman (Southwest) of the PDP, Chief Olabode George. Speaking on behalf of concerned PDP elders in the South west, Babatope said the plot by some influential governors to change the game plan had been uncovered, warning that everything would be done to resist move. His words: “We understand they are concocting a new scenario by merely zoning the National Chairman position to the South without the traditional specificity of the particular place in the South. This is not acceptable to us. This is blatant treachery and a dubious attempt to rob the South West of our just deserve. We will not take this lying low.”
Babatope, who acted as the Chairman, Olabode George national chairman campaign coordinator in the build up to the botched Port Harcourt convention, insisted that George remained the consensus candidate of the party for the Southwest. He said: “Last year, in the new scramble to elect a new National Chairman, the Committee that was enpanelled with the responsibility to zone the office naturally chose the South West Zone to bring out their best nominee. It was a fair and just and reasonable decision.”
“We all met in Akure in early August last year. Our two governors, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and Mr. Ayodele Fayose presided over the proceedings. All the political heavyweights from Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos were all dutifully present to ensure plural contributions and tidy up the democratic flowering. After an exhaustive debate and passionate submissions, the matter was put to vote. Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George was overwhelmingly voted for and subsequently adopted as the South West consensus candidate for the position of the National,” he added.
Warning against a repeat of the conspiracy that played out against George at the Port Harcourt convention where Jimi Agbaje was propped up as a contender for the chairmanship position, he said he would fight with the last drop of blood in his veins to see that the PDP in pull down and buried. “We are ready to fight. We are willing to dig into the trenches to protect and defend what is our right. If they are stubborn and indifferent to our position, we are capable and willing to help them pull down the house. It is either they give us what belongs to us and respect our choice or they will trigger the final burial and the entombment of PDP” he declared.