By Jide Ajani

ABUJA – Fresh facts emerged yesterday that a section of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South West geo-political zone is kicking against the alleged usurpation of powers of state executive committees of the party by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The bone of contention is the expected list of nominees for appointment as ministers, members and chairmen of board of Federal Government parastatals and agencies.

This is coming at a time when President Goodluck Jonathan is billed to hold another round of meetings today inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa with the inner cycle of PDP leaders on how to resolve the emerging imbroglio over the zoning arrangement of the party.

It is expected that the outcome of the meeting would pave the way for a possible final resolution of how the zoning arrangement would shape up, preparatory to a ratification by the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party.

It is also expected that a framework for the selection of nominees for ministerial and board appointments would be fashioned out.

Already, most of the states have sent in their lists of 10 nominees from each of the states.
Vanguard was reliably informed that former President Obasanjo had assembled a section of the leaders of the PDP in the South-West zone for a meeting in his Abeokuta residence the penultimate week.

Obasanjo

At the meeting, which had a few former state governors, some candidates of the party who lost at the April elections and a few confidants of the former president in attendance, a resolution to harmonise the list of nominees to be forwarded to the national headquarters of the party was reached.

Vanguard further learnt that former Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, was given the responsibility of chairing a small committee that was expected to carry out the responsibility.

A source close to the meeting hinted that “what the meeting resolved to do was to ensure that the nominees that would be forwarded to the party was cleared by the small committee set up at the meeting.”

However, Vanguard can authoritatively reveal that some leaders withn the zone are kicking against the idea.

It was learnt that this development has created a fresh wave of distrust between those seen as loyal to Obasanjo and who, therefore, are willing to go along  with the new arrangement, on the one hand, and those who are insisting that the dictate from the national headquarters of the party was meant for the state chapters and not for any formalised committee.

Vanguard was made to understand that this was done without recourse to the former president.

There are very strong indications that the former president may be pushing a ministerial slot for his daughter.

Yet, outgoing state governors like Otunba Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State and Alao-Akala of Oyo State, as well as former governor  Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State would want to have a say in who gets what and may, therefore, not be swayed by Obasanjo’s arrangement.