Obasanjo has not resigned from PDP

Contrary to what is widely understood, former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe has claimed that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, whose presidency he also served, has not resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

It would be recalled that Obasanjo had last year in the build up to the general elections denounced his membership of the PDP last year, instructing the chairman of the PDP at his ward in Abeokuta, Sunmonu Oladunjoye to help him tear his party membership card publicly.

But in a statement issued on Friday, Okupe insisted that the former President has not left the erstwhile ruling party, adding that “Baba Obasanjo still remains the undisputed and authentic leader of the PDP in the south-west.”

He said in the statement, “the fact that he tore his membership card is not tantamount to resignation from the party. An action he has not undertaken to date.

“Tearing of the membership card though a very negative action is undoubtedly a knee-jerk reaction to certain unacceptable or intolerable happenings within the party which can and will be redressed.

“In his temporary absence, we have a collegiate or confederal leadership of eminent and distinguished elders including Chief Bode George, Chief Ogunlewe, Aare Jubril Martins Kuye, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Chief Mrs Apampa, Dr. lekan Balogun, Baba Richard Akinjide, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, Chief Ebenezer BABATOPE, Shuabu Oyedokun, Iyiola Omisore, Prof. Adeniran, Gov Fayose, Gov Mimiko, Senator Bode Olajumoke amongst others.

“Senator Buruji Kashamu is NOT the leader of the PDP in the south-west. He is not even the leader of the party in Ogun state. He leads an NGO called Omo Ilu which engages in empowerment programmes in the state, mainly in the Ogun east senatorial district.

“We are a proud and a foremost race in Nigeria. We have enviable political antecedents and capable of presenting nationally credible and acceptable leadership at any and all time.”