The Kwara State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed claims by a publication that there is a crisis among its members from the Northern Senatorial District over the process of choosing the gubernatorial candidate for next year’s general elections. Instead, the party assured the general public that all its aspirants have privately and publicly endorsed the process initiated by the leadership in conjunction with elders from Kwara North.
In a statement by the State Publicity Secretary, Prince ‘Tunji Moronfoye, the party stated that all the claims made in the publication by Leadership newspaper titled “Crisis Hits Kwara PDP As Guber Aspirants Reject Micro-zoning” and written by Mr. Abdullahi Olesin were not only false and lack any basis but outrightly mischievous with intent to mislead the public.
The party noted that a clear indication that the report was a “mere figment of the imagination of the reporter” is the fact no single person was named as the source of the story but rather the reporter attributed the story to a phantom “group of stakeholders”.
Moronfoye referred the general public to a communique issued and signed by all the aspirants after a meeting with the national leader of the party, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki in Abuja on April 12, 2022, in which they all hailed the painstaking process that has been adopted and followed in the move to select a popular and generally accepted gubernatorial candidate as evidence that there is no crisis in Kwara PDP over the issue of the gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 elections.
The Kwara North aspirants had at the meeting reiterated in their jointly signed communique that “We resolved that the micro-zoning of the gubernatorial ticket to Edu and Patigi LGAs as suggested by leaders of the Senatorial District has further underlined the readiness of our zone to produce the eventual candidate in an atmosphere of peace and unity. This move enjoys our unanimous support”.
They also added that “Overall, we have agreed that we shall without further delay intensify our consultations with our leaders in the zone to come up with the name of the gubernatorial candidate. We also believe that with the systematic, methodical, and all-inclusive approach adopted by the leadership of the party up to this level, whoever the candidate is and whenever he is announced, we will all support the decision and work for the emergence of the candidate as the next governor of the State.
“We also resolved that at the end of the day, no matter which area and which person gets the ticket, it is a win-win situation for all of us. We are all winners and Kwara State people will be the winner. We will all go around the entire state to canvass support for the gubernatorial candidate and to further spread the message of unity, hope, and development”.
Moronfoye noted that “The above statements are extracts from the communique signed by all PDP Governorship aspirants from Kwara North present at the April 12, 2022 meeting. We now wonder where the falsehood and the made-up story of aspirants’ rejection of micro-zoning arrangements in the Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as published by the newspaper came from.
“We wish to state unequivocally, that the members of the Kwara PDP family are satisfied with the consensus process adopted in the choice of candidates, particularly with the all-inclusive and painstaking consultations being embarked upon”, the party spokesman stated.
