Kola Ologbondiyan: Delta PDP members rejecting Oborevwori’s defection, mobilising to strengthen party

Kola Ologbondiyan, a former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says some members in Delta are mobilising to sustain the party following the defection of Sheriff Oborevwori, the governor of the state, to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On April 23, Oborevwori, Ifeanyi Okowa, the immediate former governor of Delta, and other PDP bigwigs in the state, defected to the APC.

Speaking on ‘Democracy Today,’ a programme on AIT, on Thursday, Ologbondiyan said PDP members in Delta are rejecting the governor’s defection, adding that the PDP remains strong despite internal challenges and recent high-profile exodus.

“By the time we got into office as NWC members in 2017, many Nigerians, particularly those in APC, believed that PDP was already a dead horse and that nothing can awake it,” he said.

He said the crisis the party faced in 2017 under Uche Secondus’ leadership was more severe than the current situation.

“But we did not only reawaken the party; we presented an opposition that was strong and very viable,” he said.

Ologbondiyan played down the significance of defections, saying only one PDP governor has left the party.

“So, what we are encountering now, which, though, is not limited to the Peoples Democratic Party — because people keep talking about, oh, ‘there has been mass decamping, oh, the governors are’ leaving’—but we have had just one governor that has left,” he said.

He advised political leaders to properly gauge the mood of their supporters before switching parties.

“Painful as it is, we must also understand that when a leader leaves a party, he needs to study the mood of the followers before he takes the decision,” he said.

“If he does not study the mood of the followers, he may take a decision in error.”

He said reconciliation efforts within the PDP are ongoing, adding that the party is focused on repositioning ahead of the next general election.

“So, for us in the Peoples Democratic Party, the determination to settle all the scores within and to make sure that the party remains viable ahead of the next election is still there for us, and the opportunity is there,” he said.

Ologbondiyan recalled that PDP governors recently met in Ibadan and took steps to strengthen the party, including a leadership change.

“You remember that some weeks back, the governors of the party met in Ibadan and took some decisions, including the replacement of Senator Anyanwu as national secretary with the deputy national secretary in an acting capacity,” he said.

“I’m talking about Setonji Koshoedo. So, he has assumed office as we speak.”

He said the PDP has now fixed its long-awaited national executive committee (NEC) meeting for May 27.

“The party also has slated NEC for the 27th of May,” he said.

“You might say that, oh, we have had a series of postponements of the national executive committee meeting of the party.

“But in this fight, the governors’ forum recommended to the national working committee, and the national working committee has also adopted that date, so we hope, and we await the NEC meeting on May 27th, where many of the decisions that have been untaken and that had the party down will be taken.”

He said efforts to rebuild the PDP’s base are already yielding results in Delta, where the grassroots are refusing to follow defecting leaders.

“Let me also tell you, for instance, in Delta state where the governor and the former governor had just left the party, the national working committee resolved that the zonal chairman, the national vice-chairman for the south-south, Elder Emmanuel Ogidi, should go and galvanise the support base of the party,” he said.

“And as we are speaking, even members of the party at the lowest level are not waiting for him — they are already galvanising themselves.

“They are already forming caretaker committees on their own because they do not agree with the movement of the governor and some other leaders.”

On Tuesday, Charles Aniagwu, the commissioner for information in Delta, said states that are not aligned with the ruling party at the federal level are often excluded from key appointments and benefits.

Justifying the defection of his principal, the commissioner noted that being in the same political party as the president by any state government enhances access to the presidency and federal influence.