2015: PDP plots to capture Lagos, others

The opposition parties in Nigeria may have to work harder to retain the states where they wield authority if threats by the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, to reclaim the states it lost between 2009 and 2012 is anything to go by.

Investigations by our correspondents on Sunday showed that the leadership of the PDP had concluded a plan, which would guide members in their efforts to boost the party’s electoral fortunes in 2015. Part of the plan is to resolve crises in Ogun and Oyo states which the party believes it lost due to internal problems. The ruling party is also planning to win Ekiti and Osun states, which it lost to judicial battles.

Based on the PDP’s calculation, winning more states would render useless, any alliance or merger by the opposition parties, especially the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change for the 2015 presidential poll.

The PDP aims to reclaim South-West states of Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo and Osun, which were lost between 2009 and 2011.

Officials of the party, investigations showed, had been meeting various groups in Lagos State, especially non-indigenes, with the aim of shoring up support for the party between now and 2015.

Two top members of the party from Lagos and Osun states had been meeting with Presidency officials on strategies to be used, a source who will not want to be identified, said.

One of the strategies, it was learnt, was to make sure that candidates of the PDP were declared winners in the aforementioned states during elections.

A top member of the party said, “After the declaration, we will expect those who lose to go to tribunal.

“We will meet there. But don’t forget that the recent ruling by the Supreme Court that pegged the duration of all electoral cases to 180 days will work in favour of anyone declared winners of any election.”

The source added that it was this ruling that probably saved the Governor of Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswan, from probable sacking by the tribunal.

The source also said the party hoped to take over Nasarawa State, where it lost the governorship seat in spite of controlling the House of Assembly. The PDP, it was learnt, had directed its South East leaders to reclaim Imo and Anambra states from the All Progressive Grand Alliance.

The party’s strategy was to create confusion within APGA, which had started manifesting.

Already, the National Chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, is at loggerheads with the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi.

A member of the PDP’s National Working Committee, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, confirmed that the party had started preparations for the 2015 elections.

According to him, top on the agenda of the party is how to win Lagos State.

He said that the PDP believed that if President Goodluck Jonathan could win the state in the 2011 presidential poll, nothing should stop the party from getting the state in the next governorship poll.

He said, “We have also been meeting non-indigenes, who constitute more than 40 per cent of the population of the state. We have told them to steer clear of the crisis in the Lagos PDP, which we are trying to resolve.”

“The PDP would make efforts to persuade some opposition states, governors to defect to it.

“For example, if Governor Mimiko wins the November governorship, he may be persuaded to join the PDP or support the ruling party at the 2015 presidential poll.

“The CPC and the ACN are the only opposition parties giving us problems. Most of other opposition parties are extensions of the PDP. They will support us in the presidential poll.”

The National Vice-Chairman of the PDP in South West, Mr. Segun Oni, confirmed that the party was working on winning in all the states it lost, especially in the South West.

Oni said this in a statement by his Media Aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka, in Ado-Ekiti.

The former governor said that the PDP, being popular in all the states in the region, did not need to rig, adding that the seriousness about winning the state was what brought about genuine reconciliation of all the warring factions within the party.

He said, “First and foremost, apart from Lagos where ACN used to be popular, the party is not popular in the South West and that is a fact, unless we are going to be equating judicial manipulation with which the ACN took Ekiti and Osun states to popularity.

“Morever, it is obvious that the people of the South West have now seen how deceitful the ACN people are, and are more than willing to vote the party out in the next elections.

“Therefore, we are working assiduously to reposition the party by first bringing all our members together and making the party a disciplined and all-inclusive one, which will not be controlled by a single individual or group.”

But in an interview with our correspondent in Osogbo, the National Chairman, Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, pooh-poohed the plan by the PDP to reclaim the South West states in 2015.

Akande said, “To a very large extent, the assertion is a joke and wishful thinking. How can the PDP wish to return to power in the South West where it has failed woefully to give the dividends of democracy to the people?

“If you analyse all the indices that could be considered in an election, not even one index supports the possibility of the PDP emerging victorious. The only language known to the PDP is rigging. There’s no basis for comparison between the ACN and the PDP at any level.

“Nigerians are getting more aware and sophisticated electorally. For 13 years in power, the PDP cannot fix the problem of electricity and yet it wants to perpetuate itself in power. Nigerians are no fools.

“The only way the PDP can do this is through violence and rigging but I’m sure Nigerians will resist them in the oncoming elections.”

Also, the spokesman of CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, dismissed the PDP’s plan, saying the ruling party could only win through rigging.

Fashakin stated, “The PDP has never really won elections, but captures votes through willful votes allocation. Of course, the PDP does this electoral heist with the active connivance of INEC.

“Jega’s INEC, for instance, with the penchant for pandering to the PDP has become the electoral arm of the PDP. How else would you explain the infractions by INEC including holding an elections in Kebbi State, Jega’s home state outside 90-day window ordered by a court of law.

“Electoral wishes of the people are only allowed to stay when there is real threat of people’s revolt. With the spate of misgovernance that the PDP governments (state and federal) have unleashed on the Nigerian people, only votes capturing can make them reclaim lost states in 2015.”