Former governor of Ogun state, Gbenga Daniel.

Ogun PDP denies Daniel membership

The Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP) yesterday denied the former governor of the state, Gbenga Daniel membership of the party, just as the party said it had commenced move to re-brand the party ahead of 2015 general elections.

The party made this known yesterday at a press conference held at its secretariat in Abeokuta, the state capital, stressing that Mr Daniel could only be re-admitted into the party if he followed due process as contained in the party’s constitution, Articles 8{4}, 8{9} and 10{c}.

The chairman of the organising committee, Bode Mustapha who led the seven-man committee to address the press, declared “Mr Daniel is not a member of our party, except he follows due process to return to the party, as stipulated in the party constitution.” The party indicted the former governor as being responsible for the party’s failure during the last poll, accusing him of playing God, who believes the party belonged to him.

“We lost at the last election because Mr Daniel was playing God, he believes the party belongs to him. He thought he has to have the party to himself, forgetting that everybody has role to play, we are all stakeholders,” he said.

On the re-branding efforts of the party, Mr Mustapha gave assurance that there were no more factions within the party. “We now have a disciplined party; we are one united party. We have no more factions in PDP.” He said those who left the party to the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) during the crisis, but were interested in returning could only be admitted on individual basis, and not as a group.

Speaking on the re-branding efforts of the committee, the chairman said a number of programmes had been lined up, which include a statewide conference scheduled for August 28, 2011, as well as a South-West conference on September 3, 2011 in Abeokuta.

“The party has indeed learnt from the past, and by this, our new watchwords are internal democracy, proper crisis management mechanism, equal opportunities for all members as well as unprecedented discipline across the board,” he added.