they said…
An inaugural meeting of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) Southwest was held in Akure on
Saturday with the objective of outlining a strategy
for winning the 2015 elections in the area, with
Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose reiterating the
party’s old mantra that the presidential contest is
a “do or die” affair.
The returnee-governor said the party must be
prepared to use its control of the army and the
police, which it currently controls, to ensure
victory for President Goodluck Jonathan at next
month’s polls.
The meeting was organized by the PDP South-
West co-ordinator, Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, who
shared the high table with Senitor Iyiola Omisore,
Mr. Kolapo Ogunjobi, Senator Musilu Obanikoro,
Governor Ayo Fayose and various leaders from
the zone.
Governor Fayose underlined that the presidential
election was critical, advising that the party
should forget about governorship elections and
concentrate on the presidential contest.
According to him, once President Jonathan was
re-elected, everything else would fall into place
and the party could declare the governorship
candidates of PDP in various States as it likes.
Minutes of the meeting obtained by
SaharaReporters shows that some delegates
advocated de-emphasizing rallies as campaign
strategy, preferring that the PDP should focus on
propaganda aimed at tarnishing the image of the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives
Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari. Some of
the delegates wanted to use the media to dent
the image of General Buhari.
In that connection, Senator Omisore expressed
support for the extensive use of propaganda
against Buhari, joining Governor Fayose in
stressing that the all efforts should be mobilized
to win the Presidency because the PDP would be
nothing without the presidency.
Mr. Fayose disagreed with the propaganda
strategy, describing it as a waste of time.
Stressing that attack is the best form of defence,
he said that the PDP in general and the South-
west PDP should be valiant to face the Tinubus
anywhere they are.
He underlined that the PDP cannot afford to lose
its control of the police and the army, which it
will without Jonathan being the president.
On Fayose’s description of the presidential
election as a “do or die” affair, Gov. Mimiko,
obviously aware that the outburst could be used
against the PDP, countered that it should not be
a “do or die” but rather a “do-and-win” affair.
One of the decisions taken by the meeting was to
set up a number of committees, including Security,
Contacts, Traditional, and INEC.
The committee on Security is saddled with the
responsibility of working with the police and the
army. The party leaders also further tasked the
students at both the national and regional levels
to monitor various institutions and polling booths
to make sure that the election goes in favour of
President Jonathan. It was also stated that a
national student body had submitted a proposal
for a youth conference that will hold in FUTA this
month where the South-west students would
adopt Jonathan as their presidential candidate.
TEXT OF THE MINUTES OF THE INAUGURAL
MEETING OF THE SOUTH WEST
PDP, HELD ON 27TH DECEMBER 2014
The inaugural meeting of the southwest PDP was
held in Akure, at the Government House of the
State (Ondo State).
The meeting was organized by the PDP South-
West co-ordinator, Gov. Olusegun Mimiko. On the
high table were Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, Senitor
Iyiola Omisore, Mr. Kolapo Ogunjobi, Senator
Musilu Obanikoro, Governor Ayo Fayose, a
governorship aspirant in Oyo State and various
leaders from the South-West.
At the beginning of the meeting, the host
appealed to all the South-West PDP members and
leaders to be united so as for them to be able to
gain more votes from the zone. And people were
given opportunity to give opinion on how they
could get more votes for the presidential election
in 2015 and win other positions.
A speaker from Lagos State made a comment
that Senator Muslim Obanikoro’s son, Ibrahim
Obanikoro, that contested for the position of
council chairman in one of the LCDA’s in Lagos
State, defeated Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his
area but was not given the position. He
mentioned that that they had the key in winning
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that Asiwaju
only claims what he cannot do.
And the speaker further said that they needed the
support of the Presidency to do so many things in
Lagos State, concerning the forth-coming
election.
Also, another speaker from Lagos State
emphasized on issue of disbursement of funds for
the election. He stressed that funds were always
late for disbursement for elections, so they
wanted early disbursement so that they could
deliver.
While another speaker from another state said
they were happy for the meeting because it would
foster peace among the southwest PDP members
and that they could move on easily.
A speaker from Oyo State laid emphasis on use of
the media and said the party should go more on
the media attack on the opposition party (APC).
He mentioned that effective use of the media was
the weapon being used by APC. Gov. Mimiko now
stated that they made findings of who were the
owners of some dailies and that it was discovered
that those media outfits did not belong to
members of the APC, and thus PDP could equally
hijack the media.
A speaker from Osun State that he had told Gov.
Mimiko to help them tell the President to use his
power and office to quash Ogbeni Aregbesola
before the general elections, so that PDP could
produce more votes for the President and that the
idea of fighting Gov. Aregbesola would be by
going to the Court of Appeal which he said could
be influenced to remove Aregbesola. So, he urged
the honourable leaders of our amiable party to
look into the issue of Osun State.
Discussions now moved on to the strategy that
would be used for winning the presidential
election;
• Delegates present at the meeting discussed
more on campaign that they should do less of
rallies, instead, they should embark on full
campaign with propaganda that would tarnish the
image of APC presidential candidate, Gen. Buhari.
And part of what should be used use to campaign
against Gen. Buhari in Lagos is that he was the
one who stopped the Railway metro project of
Lagos State 30 years ago, and that instead of
Buhari completing the project, he paid the penalty
for breaching the contract of the railway metro
line project.
• Delegates present laid serious emphasis on
using the media to dent the image of the
presidential candidate of APC.
Some delegates maintained that the change that
the emperor of Bourdillon wanted to change Nig.
democracy to totalitarian dictatorship. Members
stated that when PDP had no State in the South-
west, the President got good votes from the
South-west and now that the party has two
States, it would be able to win all the other
States if the two States in its kitty are well
utilised.
Senator Omisore said in his speech that
propaganda of any form shoule be utilised and
that all efforts should be mobilized to win the
Presidency as without the presidency the party is
nothing.
In the speech of Mr. Ayo Fayose, he said
propaganda would only waste time and that
attack is the best from of defence. He maintained
that the party in general and the South-west PDP
needed to be valiant to face the Tinubus
anywhere they are. He further said we have the
control of police and the army and “I CAN NOT
AFFORD TO LOSE MY CONTROL ON POLICE AND
THE ARMY” and without Jonathan being the
president we will lose the control. Further, he said
the presidential election is a do or die affair but
Gov. Mimiko quickly countered that it should not
be a do or die affair but rather a do-and-win
affair.
Governor Fayose later said they should forget
about all governorship elections and concentrate
on the presidential election, that once President
Jonathan returns, we could be declaring the
governorship candidates of PDP in various States
as they like, meaning that the Presidential
election is very paramount.
As the meeting progressed, leaders at the meeting
put Oyo State in focus and maintained that PDP
could get more votes for the president there by
begging both Chief Alao Akala and Chief Rasheed
Ladoja to align their parties with the PDP since
they have no presidential aspirant and there is
every need to throw out Ajimobi, Amosun with
using militant thugs loyal to PDP.
Mr. Kolapo Ogunjobi representing Otunba Gbenga
Daniel said they PDP on ground in Ijebu side of
Ogun State and they were grassrooters and that
they could deliver with good resources.
Sen. Musilu Obanikoro in his own speech said 3
days after he lost the PDP primary election, that
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to him in
private which he said was quite unusual of him.
He said Tinubu asked him how much he had
spent and that he was ready to give him 2 billion
Naira and a senatorial seat from APC in Lagos
State. He said he refused the offer and stressed
that they could just imagine how smart and clever
Asiwaju is. He further stated that Cardinal James
Odunmbaku (Baba Eto) was almost at the
concluding part of decamping to PDP and that
even he had even concluded with the presidency
in Aso Rock before Asiwaju hijacked him back
with the position of Director-General of Campaign
of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. He said they could see
that Tinubu is the smart type. Senator Obanikoro
further said he was the only person that could
match Bola Ahmed Tinubu because he said he
knew his tactics. He further emphasized that with
cash in his hand, Tinubu is nobody.
While Governor Fayose intervened by saying that
there was nothing special in Lagos and that he
normally visited markets in Lagos every weekend
and before the people in the market would
recognize him, they would have said so many
things in his presence that they won’t know.
Govenor Fayose further said he was coming to
Lagos to teach people the market approach to
sensitizing the people on the need to support PDP
and dump APC.
After all this, the communiqué prepared sequel to
which the press was allowed entry into the place
for a brief coverage before they were dispersed
again. At the end, they set up various committees
on such areas as:
• SECURITY
• TRADITIONAL
• CONTACTS
• INEC etc.
Committee on contacts will meet important
personalities to canvass them, they mention
people like Jimoh Ibrahim in Ondo, the Ogun
people mentioned Sen. Anthony Adefuye as part
of the personalities to be visited, and many other
personalities.
Committee on INEC would monitor various INEC
commissioners in various south-west states and
try as much as possible to lure them with money
to compromise in favour of our great party.
Committee on traditional rulers would meet up all
Obas in the southwest for consultation on the
presidential election and use financial gratification
to lure them as many of them really need
stomach infrastructure, according to Governor
Fayose. Governor Mimiko maintained that many
of those Obas are actually hungry and with good
amount of money they could get them to support
PDP
Committee on security is saddled with the
responsibility to work with the police and the
army. Leaders of the party further tasked the
students at both the National (NANS) and
southwest level, state level to monitor various
institutions, polling booths and make sure that
the election would go in favour of Jonathan. It
was also observed that the National body of
student (NANS) submitted a proposal for a youth
conference that will hold in FUTA in January
where the South-west students would adopt
Jonathan as their presidential candidate.
Some leaders also talked about APC’s strategy of
deploying 10 persons per polling booth and that
they were aware of it and stated that all leaders
should task themselves to use councilors in all
their various booths.
Lastly, the South-west coordinator said the next
meeting that would hold in Ibadan which would
involve fund-raising for the presidential election
from stakeholders of the PDP south-west and the
meeting would be used to shake Oyo once again
urging that the Governorship aspirant of PDP to
be prepared.
The meeting ended with closing prayer from a
delegate from Ondo State.
Culled From: Sahara Reporters
0 comments:
Post a Comment