Doyin Okupe, former senior special assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has declared that erstwhile president Olusegun Obasanjo still remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Okupe, who was also in the administration of Obasanjo said that as opposed to the general perception that the ex-president has left the party after publicly tearing his party membership card in 2015, he still remained a member of the party.
He revealed this in a statement on Friday, March 18 said: “Baba Obasanjo still remains the undisputed and authentic leader of the PDP in the south-west.”
“The fact that he tore his membership card is not tantamount to resignation from the party. An action he has not undertaken to date.”
“Tearing of the membership card though a very negative action is undoubtedly a knee-jerk reaction to certain unacceptable or intolerable happenings within the party which can and will be redressed.”
Obasanjo had in the build up to the 2015 general elections publicly instructed the chairman of the PDP at his ward in Abeokuta to tear his membership card to pieces after going at loggerheads with the leadership of the party over the second term bidd of Goodluck Jonathan.
Obasanjo who served two terms as the president of the country under the PDP claimed that the party secretly worked to expel him because he did not support Jonathan’s bid.
“They said they want to expel me from PDP… although I have not been told but I have my ears on ground. We’ve been trying to run away from a mad man but he pleads we wait for him at the other side of the river,” he said.
“Why would some people say they want to send me away? They don’t need to bother themselves. Here’s your membership card, take it.”
Furthermore, Okupe highlighted the other party chieftains who constitute the leadership of the former ruling party in the South-West in the absence of Obasanjo.
“In his temporary absence, we have a collegiate or confederal leadership of eminent and distinguished elders including Chief Bode George, Chief Ogunlewe, Aare Jubril Martins Kuye, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Chief Mrs Apampa, Dr. lekan Balogun, Baba Richard Akinjide, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, Chief Ebenezer BABATOPE, Shuabu Oyedokun, Iyiola Omisore, Prof. Adeniran, Gov Fayose, Gov Mimiko, Senator Bode Olajumoke amongst others.”
“Senator Buruji Kashamu is NOT the leader of the PDP in the south-west. He is not even the leader of the party in Ogun state. He leads an NGO called Omo Ilu which engages in empowerment programmes in the state, mainly in the Ogun east senatorial district.”
“We are a proud and a foremost race in Nigeria. We have enviable political antecedents and capable of presenting nationally credible and acceptable leadership at any and all time.”
