•Emmanuel Ogigi and PDP logo
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Emmanuel Ogidi, is confident that the opposition crisis would surmount its current obstacles.
Ogidi, the caretaker chairman of PDP in the South-South geopolitical zone, said despite the crisis rocking the party, there is hope of the party being a main opposition.
“We are fighting a system that is trying to destroy democracy,” he said on Channels Television last night.
“There is hope for democracy because PDP is the face of the opposition. PDP stands for democracy.”
The PDP has been grappling with an internal crisis, which has led to members resigning in droves.
Former spokesman of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Saturday, December 6, resigned from the PDP.
Following his resignation, Ologbondiyan is expected to formally join the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the opposition coalition, formed in June.
The crisis in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) came to a head on November 15 when a group of PDP elders decided against the background of fierce legal battles, to hold the party’s elective conference in Ibadan, Oyo State.
They were hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde, the PDP Governor of Oyo State. The build-up to that convention was marked by battles in the federal high court and the Oyo state high court, with the judges in both courts cancelling each other out.
On Friday, November 14, to be specific, Justice Peter Lifu of the federal high court at about 8.30 am had ordered a suspension of the PDP convention. Before him, Justice James Omotoso, also of the Federal High Court, had given a similar order. By 2:30 pm on November 14, the same day, Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo state high court gave a different ruling to the effect that the convention should go ahead, and that INEC should oversee the elections at the convention.
