ONDO PDP CRISIS DEEPENS AS PARALLEL CHAIRMAN EMERGES

By NBF NEWS

The crisis engulfing the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party degenerated on Tuesday with the emergence of a parallel state chairman.

Addressing journalists in Akure, the state capital, under the aegis of Concerned and Committed Members of PDP, Ondo State, Mr. Dele Teniola from Idanre Local Government Area, announced his emergence as the interim chairman of the party in the state.

Teniola said his group decided to suspend the Dr. Tayo Dairo-led executive members because they had sold out to the opposition in the state.

He said, 'We find it difficult to place the state chairman, Dr. Tayo Dairo, either as Ondo State Chairman of the PDP or a sympathiser of a rival party based on a catalogue of misdemeanours by the state chairman.

'From the information at our disposal, Dairo is acting on a well-designed script to reduce the strength of the PDP in Ondo State especially at the Centrral Senatorial Zone where he has been promised the Senatorial ticket by an opposition party.

'Dairo fell into this position because of his Senatorial ambition and morbid fear for the two polical giants in the Central Senatorial Zone, precisely Senator Gbenga Ogunniya and Prof. Olu Agbi.'

Teniola said it was resolved at a meeting held in Akoko North Local Government Area that he should administer the affairs of the party in an interim capacity in order not to create a vacuum until the party's national secretariat elected new leaders.

He said that with the suspension of the party executives, aggrieved former members such as the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Samuel Adesina, would return to the party within a few days.

Teniola, who claimed to have the backing of prominent stakeholders in the party, handed the suspended executives a 14-day ultimatum to vacate the state secretariat or risk being forcibly ejected.

But in a swift reaction, the party's state Publicity Secretary, Chief Yemi Adedipe, described the development as laughable.

Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, Adedipe said Teniola was not known to the party structure in the state and hence, did not have the locus standi to address a press conference not to talk of sacking the party executives.