Call PDP National Legal Adviser to Order, Makinde Tells NWC
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, yesterday asked the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to call its National Legal Adviser to order to ensure rancour-free zonal congresses in the party.
Makinde, who stated this while briefing journalists at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, said that the South West zone of the party was ready for its zonal congresses, adding that party leaders in the zone were already working towards a united party.
He said that it was unthinkable to see a PDP as the plaintiff and defendant in a case deliberately filed to truncate the peace of the party.
The governor said: “I specifically put on notice that the National Legal Adviser of PDP has not done well. When the issue of the party structure in Lagos came up, I met him personally and advised him that, look, we have alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in this country, especially when it is an internal affair of the PDP.
“And he said, no, we are going to defeat them in court, but I was of the opinion that if we defeat them in court, what exactly are you going to get out of it? Now, he has started the same antics with the South West zonal congress. How can you file a case and then you instruct legal representation for the plaintiff and for the defendants? I don’t think that is acceptable. So, we expect the National Working Committee of the party to deal with that decisively.
“I came here to brief you, first, on the meeting of the South West caucus of the PDP that was held here two days ago and also to discuss briefly the happenings within the PDP National Working Committee as it relates to upcoming South West zonal congress of the party”.
Makinde told the party leaders that at the meeting, they had reaffirmed the zoning arrangement for the positions of the South West zonal executives.
“But yesterday, I heard of disturbing news that our National Working Committee is planning to postpone the South West zonal congress because some people went to court to complain about the location for the conduction of the congress.