Sources close to the former governor confirmed that Daniel, who led a delegation of 16 to the LP national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday had concluded arrangements to leave the PDP in view of the intractable crisis rocking the state chapter of the party. He was said to have gone to the LP secretariat to firm up discussions which started some months ago.
It was further confirmed that the delegation actually included members of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) formed by Daniel to prosecute the 2011 elections, some aggrieved members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the original members of the Labour Party (LP).
Each of the mentioned parties was said to have raised four members to make the 16-man team.
“As things stand right now, though Governor Gbenga Daniel is yet to pick the party’s membership ticket, we are as good as having defected. “We are of the view that the persistent problems of the PDP in Ogun State cannot be resolved and to worsen the situation, the party has been hijacked by some curious elements in the state. It can’t win any election in the state,” a source close to Daniel said.
The source further said: “We have formed a rainbow coalition of PDP, PPN, ACN and LP members to negotiate with the leadership of Labour Party and any moment from now, we will start fresh registration of members in LP. With that, there will be no new or old members as the old LP membership cards will be invalid.”
The source further said that the coalition had decided to put in place a committee of four members at the ward, local government and state levels to oversee the registration exercise adding that “we don’t want to be part of a crumbling estate like the PDP.”
When contacted, the former governor told the Sunday Tribune that he was yet to defect to the LP.
“Nothing like that. We are, however, consulting widely and will soon speak,” Daniel wrote in a reply to our enquiries.
A reliable source at the national secretariat of the LP located at Garki 2, Area 11, Abuja revealed to the Sunday Tribune in Abuja that Chief Daniel breezed into the secretariat on Thursday with some of his political associates and aides and met with the national chairman of the party, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, behind closed doors.
The source told The Sunday Tribune in confidence that the visit of the former governor was at the instance of the national leadership of the party in consultation with its Ogun State chapter as part of efforts to finalise arrangements for Daniel’s public declaration for the LP any time from now.
According to the Source, “the plan by Chief Daniel to defect to the Labour Party started since December 22 last year in Lagos, when he first held a closed door meeting with the leadership of the party and followed by series of consultations at all levels.
Former Governor Daniel who at the eve of the 2011 general election floated the PPN, which fielded Alhaji Gboyega Isiaka as its governorship candidate against Chief Adetunji Olurin fielded by the PDP and Ibikunle Amosun of ACN, was said to have given the LP leadership two conditions to be ironed out for him to finally defect to the Party.
“At the meeting with the National Chairman, former Governor Daniel reportedly demanded that the governorship ticket of the party be ceded to his group while the current Executive Committees of the party at all levels in Ogun State should be dissolved to allow for new ones that would accommodate his supporters,” the source explained.
Source: Tribune
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