Factional PDP takes over party secretariat in Kwara

A factional Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State, Sunday Fagbemi, on Monday led some of his sympathisers to take over the party’s secretariat on Asa Dam Road in Ilorin.
Members of the party, who are loyal to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee, had stormed the secretariat early in the morning amid wild jubilation.
The jubilant PDP supporters were sighted carrying placards with various inscriptions affirming Fagbemi’s leadership.
Speaking with the newsmen at the secretariat, Fagbemi said his executive committee members remained the authentic leaders of the PDP in the state.
He said his committee was duly elected at the state congress of the party, noting that the appeal committee set up by the national body of the party also affirmed him as the state chairman in its report.
Fagbemi alleged that the other factional Chairman, Akogun Oyedepo, was fraternising with the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state.
But in his reaction, the Publicity Secretary of the Oyedepo-led executive of the PDP, Rex Olawoye, insisted that Oyedepo remains the authentic state chairman of the party.
Olawoye, who said Oyedepo was in Abuja attending a national meeting of the party, wondered what Fagbemi was doing in Ilorin if he was the truly elected the state chairman.
He wondered why any group would forcefully enter the secretariat of the party when the party’s constitution stipulated normal taking-over process, describing the act as a “coup and invitation to anarchy”.
Olawoye, however, said that the PDP was united in the state and all the differences would be resolved in due course.
He said his group would explore all legal means to retake the party secretariat in due cause.