AHEAD of the 2019 general election, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has started negotiating for his return to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, sources has learnt.
Saraki alongside five governors had dumped the then ruling party, PDP, for the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the build up to the 2015 election. Former Chairman of the Kwara State chapter of the PDP, AkogunIyiola Oyedepo, has alleged that Saraki gave the PDP hierarchy conditions for his return to the party. The first condition, according to Oyedepo, was the insistence by Saraki that the (Oyedepo-led state) executive be dissolved in order to aid his smooth return to the party.
Oyedepo, who spoke in an interview in Ilorin, yesterday, said: “I was reliably informed that Saraki wants to come back to the PDP and the party at the national level is also eager to have him back.
“They have been helping and assisting him ever since he left the party, during his election as the Senate president, it was glaring that he wouldn’t have emerged the Senate president without the connivance of the PDP, it was a party (PDP) policy to deliver Saraki.
“If they could help him to emerge the Senate president, it shows camaraderie between them and we must know, they would do everything within their powers to bring back a friend to the fold. The (Nyesom) Wike committee recommended the bringing back of all those that left the party and Saraki’s name featured prominently.
“I have been informed that Saraki gave conditions before he can come back to the PDP, prominent amongst his demands is the presidential ticket of the party and I learnt they vehemently refused, they however conceded the Senate presidency to him and one thing is sure, he will never be comfortable with my chairmanship of the party. “I have been one of the main opposition leaders in the state and I have never disguised where I stand in the Kwara project. If Saraki is to come back, the first thing to do is to clear me out as the debris he may not want to meet, so that might actually account for why people are insinuating that he has a hand in the dissolution of my executive and I share that belief”.
Nigerian Pilot
