Moles instigating crisis in Lagos PDP – Party leaders

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has been in perennial crisis over the years, which has been hindering the party to win elections in the state. Several PDP stakeholders attributed the endless crisis to moles perceived to be recruited by the dominant All Progressives Congress (APC) party government to subvert the unity and cohesion of the party in the state for political compensations.

Some PDP stakeholders in the state were of the view that the moles in the party are visible, alleging that some moles are on the assignment of destabilizing the state PDP for money and as a business to get contract or other forms of compensation from the ruling party, and some others deliberately doing it for control of the party. PDP national leadership has also noted that moles are responsible for the crisis in the party in Lagos, Kogi and some other states.

A remarkable PDP stakeholder in Lagos State, Segun Adewale, widely known as Aeroland, had attributed his perceived suspension from the state party to moles, describing the incident as “unscrupulous attempt to break into the party’s rank in Alimosho and the state by some moles working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.”

It was gathered that Aeroland, who had been suspicious of a renowned PDP leader in the state, Chief Bode George, later discovered the party elder is not a mole, but has good intention for the PDP. He, therefore, resolved to work with Bode George.

National Daily investigation also found that a notable PDP leader from Lagos East who was once appointed a minister by the PDP federal government, had his loyalists distributed in both the APC and PDP. Many of his loyalists while in PDP garb, work for the APC during elections, in anticipation of reward for commissioner appointment. Indeed, about two of the leader’s loyalists were appointed into the state cabinet, one as commissioner, and the other as an adviser to the governor, while they were all PDP members in the day time but APC members at night. Today, the leader is comfortably an APC member in the state, which has shelved PDP the load of moles in the party.

Segun Adewale has been working assiduously, cooperating with Chief Bode George, to restore unity and cohesion in the PDP in the build up to the 2023 general elections.

Another renowned PDP leader, Adedeji Doherty, is not left out of the efforts to restore unity in Lagos PDP. However, there are still divisions in charting the path of conflict resolution and consensus building in the state PDP.

Currently, the Lagos PDP has no secretariat due to inability to pay rent for an office complex. Our investigation revealed that those who control the party structure do not seem to have the capacity to provide the required fund. Those who have the financial muscle to write off the bill are reluctant to fund the rent payment for the faction controlling the party and looking forward to what they will benefit at individual levels.

The State Chairman, Philip Olabode Aivoji, who emerged at the PDP State Congress in Lagos on February 28, has been battling with the herculean task of bringing the state party back to track for a united force to confront and transplant the APC in the 2023 general elections in Lagos. The leader of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, Olajide Adediran, known as Jandor, who defected from the APC to the PDP with his political bloc in anticipated to strengthen the PDP to size up the APC in 2023 governorship election in Lagos.

Some PDP leaders in the state have argued that the moles are not mostly defectors from the ruling party in the state, from the days of the Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the APC, but more of traditional and original PDP members who have developed structures in Lagos State. According to the PDP stakeholders, those with strong structures having found themselves in opposition, use the structures to negotiate for patronage after the elections, then compromise the elections supporting the ruling party while they remained bonafide PDP members.

National Daily gathered that though the crisis persists, but efforts are going on to put it behind the party in the preparations for the highly sensitive 2023 general elections.