The political camp of former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have been thrown into confusion as his loyalists are said to be strongly divided over the decision of whether to decamp to the opposition, All Progressives Congress, APC or remain with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in support of President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition.
Investigations revealed that a motion was moved to decamp to APC by some of the ex-president’s loyalists at a meeting of the PDP caucus in Ogun State, held at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Friday night.
The motion to join APC, sources told NewMailNG, was moved by the Ogun East senatorial chairman, Tayo Ajayi, and seconded by another elder from Ogun West, Shina Adejobi but a counter motion was moved by a former lawmaker who represented Ifo I constituency at the state House of Assembly, Hon. Johnson Fatoki, before the motion was put to vote.
At the end of the voting, 14 PDP chairmen out of the 20 across Ogun and two serving members of the state House of Assembly, Job Akintan and Abiodun Akovoyon, allegedly countered the motion to join the APC.
Sources at the meeting told our correspondent that after the move to join APC hit a brickwall, the two groups were advised to continue negotiating with the parties of their choice and report back to the house.
At the meeting, Sunday Alawode who was elected interim Chairman of the caucus, said the Obasanjo group was not in support of the move to negotiate with the APC, adding that members of the group were solidly behind the reconciliatory moves by the new Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu.
“Yes, a meeting was held and someone moved a motion to join the APC and the motion was countered. 14 local government Chairmen and all political functionaries were not in support of the move and since Obasanjo has made it clear he is staying in PDP, we stand by him on that decision,” he said.
“We congratulate the new National Chairman of our party and believe in his ability to reconcile the party in the South-west and Ogun State in particular. We also support President Jonathan’s 2015 presidential ambition and we are ready to work for its success.”