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.

make una begin dey tear the useless Pdp card and burn the leak umbrella