A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Mr Segun Adewale, has insisted that he remains the authentic chairman of the party in the state.
Adewale, popularly known as Aeroland, made the claim while speaking with journalists in Lagos, yesterday.
He insisted that Dr Adegbola Dominic, who is parading himself as PDP chairman in the state, is living a lie and is not the party’s chairman in the state.
Adewale had emerged a factional chairman of the PDP in the state during the national leadership tussle between former governors, Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff in 2017.
While Adewale aligned with the Sheriff faction of the PDP, another factional chairman in the state, Mr Moshood Salvador, was with the Makarfi group.
But the Supreme Court, on July 12, 2017, sacked Sheriff, affirming Makarfi as the PDP national chairman.
Following the judgement, the national leadership directed Adewale, who had been in control of the party secretariat, to submit the key to former deputy national chairman of the party, Chief Bode George, an ally of Makarfi, and work with Salvador on a power sharing arrangement, which led to the emergence of Salvador as chairman of an executive including members from Adewale’s group.
The defection of Salvador to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) last year, after disagreements with George, paved the way for the emergence of Dominic as the new chairman.
But reacting, Dominic insisted that he remained the chairman of the PDP in Lagos State and that Adewale’s claim should be disregarded.
“All I can say for now is that, it is not true that he is the chairman. I am the chairman.
“I refer you to the national leadership of the party on the matter. I do not want to involve myself in all these things. Please, get across to the party secretariat,” he said.
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Adewale told newsmen that he is now the “authentic chairman” and not Dominic, adding that Dominic could no longer lay claim to the seat as he was appointed to fill the vacuum left by Salvador for a period of three months.
He said the three months given to Dominic expired in December, 2018 and that he (Adewale) was the automatic chairman as he only stepped aside for Salvador to allow peace in the party.
Adewale said he had since taken over the party secretariat at Shogunle and was working on some legal processes to ensure a firm grip on affairs of the party in Lagos
He said, “I am the authentic PDP chairman in Lagos, I only stepped aside for Salvador after the national leadership of the party asked me to do so.
“After two years of factional crisis, I obeyed the leadership of the party to allow peace to reign and so that the party could make progress.
“The judgement that sacked Sherrif did not sack me as chairman and I was supposed to lead the party till 2021 before stepping aside.
“When Salvador left for APC, I made attempts to step in to continue, but there were appeals from all corners that election was underway and that I should allow somebody from the George group to occupy the position in the interim, for a period of three months.
“I agreed and remained on the sidelines and Dominic emerged. But now, his tenure expired in December while I still have my original mandate till 2021.”
Adewale insisted that the only conditions that would make him shift position is for all groups in the party to agree on an elective congress as soon as possible “or a court ordee stopping me from being chairman.”
