LAGOS PDP CRISIS: OGUNLEWE, DOSUNMU MAY BE EXPELLED

The protracted crises in the Lagos chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set for the worst, as some leaders of the party have been penciled down for de-registration, a notorious euphemism for expulsion.

The post election crises in the party, which peaked with the defection of its Publicity Secretary, Dr. Wale Ahmed and others to the rival Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has since defied redress. The leadership of the party in exasperation may have decided to wield the big stick on some errant members, who are accused of 'anti-party activities.'

Daily Sun learnt that a former minister of works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, and the party's governorship candidate in the last election, Dr. Shamsideen Ade-Dosunmu, among others, would likely be affected in the putsch.

The former national deputy chairman of the party and defacto leader in Lagos, Chief Olabode George came close to it when he told Daily Sun recently that 'Ogunlewe is not a member of our party.'

The party has been grappling with large scale rebellion of members who are incensed with the serial losses at elections since 1999. Efforts to contain the rebellion has led to the emergence of splinter groups with opposing objectives.

The objectives, however, have a common meeting in the push for federal appointments. In the scramble for positions at the federal level the party members have let loose their strength and have been 'dinning with the devil and the deep blue sea.'

The result has been a slide in discipline and party unity which the ACN has exploited to the fullest. The elders forum constituted to handle the crises has met a stillbirth as it has not sat for once. The secretariat at Ikeja GRA which used to be a beehive of activities has also been deserted. The new leadership of the party at the national level has made little or no effort to contain the unfolding crises. 'Leaders and other chieftains of the party in Lagos have made the WADATA secretariat, Abuja, a second home selling different stories about the affairs of the Lagos chapter to the obviously confused officials.

'But one direction is clear from the various meetings. The Lagos PDP will be re-organised. Some people may go, while the leadership will be strengthened,' a leader of the party told Daily Sun on Monday. Some of the leaders have also approached ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo for intervention, to no avail. A battle line is now drawn between the party leaders and the Ogunlewe group, who is accused of being the brain behind the growing crises of confidence and disillusionment.