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While the chairman of the PDP caretaker committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and his party men are still basking in the euphoria of last week’s Supreme Court victory, it has been revealed that before the verdict, he and his men had a plan B which was outside the party.
Newspeakonline confirmed on Thursday that the Makarfi faction, which had on its side state governors, National Assembly members and out-spoken chieftains, was the big hand behind the All Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) which was launched by Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Dan Nwanyanwu and others.
This revelation was made by the APDA Chairman in Oyo State, Hon. Yemi Taiwo, who on Thursday attended a meeting of stakeholders of the state PDP.
The meeting was organised to reconcile all warring and agrieved factions in the state and to further talks of a possible coalition with other opposition parties to get the All Progressives Congress (APC) out of office in 2019.
The meeting, convened by a former Senate deputy whip, Senator Hosea Agboola a.k.a Alleluyah, had prominent members of the state PDP in attendance. He said that the meeting was as in line with decisions reached at the last PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Abuja which mandated that all warring factions be brought back into the umbrella party.
Taiwo confirmed that if the Ali Modu Sheriff faction had won at the Supreme Court, members of the Makarfi group would have moved in droves to APDA.
He said: “If the supreme court judgement had not gone the way of the Makarfi’s faction favour, our sitting here today would have being under the umbrella name of APDA.
“APDA is the brainchild of Makarfi faction to create a soft landing and platform in case things goes out of hand, just like those of the other faction too had something.
“But since the judgement has now favoured our faction, we thank God and there is need for all of us to come back home. And we can call our party any name we want. In APDA, we have people from other parties too in our midst, even people from the APC who are disatisfied with the ruling party.
“The good thing is that this PDP is different and things must take normal turn. I want to urge all our members in APDA now to go to the grassroot and mobilise support for future elections. PDP belongs to us and it is our own”
It would be recalled that while the PDP crisis lasted with Sheriff winning at the lower courts, some memebrs of the party like Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose and former Presidential campaign spokesman, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode made it very clear that they were never going to end up in a party led by Sheriff.
Fani-Kayode suggested the formation of a new party.
READ: Fani-Kayode: It’s time to leave PDP for a new party
The presence of leaders and members of other political parties in the state at the Thursday meeting advanced the determination of the political parties to form the coalition.
Former governorship aspirant on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Engr. Seyi Makinde and former governor, Chief Adebayo Alao Akala, currently in the APC, sent representatives to the meeting.
READ ALSO: 2019: Akala, Makinde, send reps to Oyo PDP stakeholders meeting
Agboola disclosed that the leadership of the party was in talks with the likes of Makinde and former governors Akala and Rashidi Ladoja as well as other decampees to come back to the PDP.
Some of the PDP stakeholders who attended include: the immediate past state chairman, Hon. Yinka Taiwo; a former speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Jelili Adeleke; former members of the House of Representatives Hon. Jimoh Afeez, Mrs. Funmi Orisadey.
Others are Alhaji Adebisi Olopoenia, Hon. Jacob Adetoro leading the Oke Ogun zone and a former state chairman of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr. Demola Ojo.