A Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party and a two-time member of the House of Representatives
representing Remo North Federal Constituency, Honourable Dave Salako bares his mind on the steps the
national leadership of the party should take to avert loss in the forthcoming governorship poll. He
specifically urged the president to ensure he uses his office to intervene in the political imbroglio rocking
the PDP. Excerpts.
By Daud Olatunji
What exactly is wrong with the PDP in Ogun State ?
All is not well and this is because the party hierarchy after seeing all that is happening in Ogun State has
refused to apply the right antidotes to solve these problems. It seems they are turning away their eyes
from the reality.
We have been inundated with calls everywhere after we found that wrong names were published as
candidates. Our problem started from congresses as you are aware, to the primaries and to where we are
now. You should know that there were no primaries in Ogun State. But how come the emergence of
candidates? That is the big question.
So all is not well in Ogun State and we can only tell our people to be calm until we have these problems
resolved. The way it is, the solution is far fetched and I can only speak for myself that come rain, come
shine, I will still be in PDP. Our followers are very angry and they want to move to another party.
Fairness and equity
There is no amount of appeal one can make to them unless the party does the right thing and do justice,
fairness and equity.
Are you now indicting the national leadership of the party of not doing what you believe is right?
I am blaming them for not doing what is right. They are the cause of our problem and I want to stand by
it that unless the party address that area, there is going to be problem. You cannot stop people to move
because there is freedom of association but some of us stakeholders will remain in the party until we get
justice to our side.
Is it that you have an axe to grind with somebody like Kashamu who is the major financier of the party in
Ogun State?
I don’t have any axe to grind with him. The only axe I have to grind with him is that he should be honest
and he should be far away from anything that is politically fraudulent. He has done so many things that I
have seen that are very wrong and he is getting away with it.
I have pointed it out several times. I have taken him to
court but instead of him backing out, he is brining another
dimension into politics of Nigeria – finding people to
compromise in many things that they know are wrong. He
would get a black document and he wants to call it white
to everybody. Falsification and distortion of facts and
documents and I verily believe that this man doesn’t want
us to win in Ogun State.
I have it in my mind that he is working for APC because if
you look at all the candidates he fielded in his so called list,
they are all weak ducklings that can never stand any
election and win. With due respect to those candidates.
Even I challenge him, can he win Ogun East Senatorial seat
for us? He cannot. He is not even qualified. We will
challenge him when the time comes. We cannot be under
the same umbrella with him unless he goes back to mend
his ways.
Don’t you think the situation on ground portends grave danger for the party?
Absolutely, it does. This is a replica of what actually happened in 2011. Let us look at what happened in
2011. Buruji and his cohorts at that time made sure that Daniel and others were sent out of the party.
Daniel went to PPN and the result is here. We lost the election but if you put the result of PPN and PDP
together, we would have defeated Amosun.
I am sure if care is not taken, the same thing will repeat because people are hitching to move to another
party and not to stay under the same umbrella with Buruji and if they do, we cannot not stop and we will
lose that election again. We thought this is a great opportunity for us to claim back our lost glory in Ogun
State.
What was the outcome of several meetings held with the leaders of the party, including Mr. President to
resolve the knotty issues?
In fact if you recall, you will recollect that there was a committee set up under David Mark to look into
Southwest and they summoned us to the villa and we were all told to go and work together. I was there,
Daniel, Dimeji, Buruji, JMK, all the leaders were there but the moment we left there, Buruji came back and
started doing another thing. All the leaders are ready to work together and we are still working together
but without Buruji and he is the only person scattering everything.
Coming to your question, the last meeting that was summoned, the president was there, the vice president
was there, Chief Anenih, Senate President and we were told to go and have a unity list and that nobody
should go to court but the following day, this same man went to court. What has the party done to him? I
want to repeat, he has gone to court more than 40 times and he has about 30 injunctions.
Our former national Chairman , Bamanga Tukur only went to court once and he was disciplined. So what
makes Buruji above all discipline? So there are questions that are begging for answer.
Are you now saying that Buruji is greater than the party?
He looks so but I am happy Anenih told him that he is not bigger than the party but what have they done
since then.






source: www. www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/ogun-yes-our-people-re-abandoning-pdp-for-kashamu-salako/

Booked

dont worry after jonathan wins, the likes of buruju would be sidelined.

KONTINU.