A significant internal crisis is rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, as a prominent chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, has publicly accused the party’s deputy national secretary, Hon. Setonji Koshoedo, of manipulating the process for upcoming ward and state congresses.
The disagreement centres on the distribution of nomination forms. In a formal petition to the party’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Iliya Damagum, and the National Working Committee (NWC), Chief George alleged that Koshoedo sidelined the established leadership of the Lagos State chapter in handing out the forms.
George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, described the move as “worrisome.” He expressed his frustration that Koshoedo, who he claimed had not been involved in the state party’s activities “either financially or otherwise,” collected the forms and decided to “single-handedly determine the modus operandi of distributing the forms.”
He questioned how the deputy national secretary could ignore the official party leadership in Lagos, which includes two life-members of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT), when deciding how to run the congresses.
“Surprisingly, he didn’t take into cognizance the efforts of the leaders of the party to build consensus among party members in the various Local Governments, an effort that had already started bearing fruit,” George said. “How did he arrive at the list of people to be given nomination forms for distribution to the various Local Governments?” he queried.
The accusations grew more severe, with George alleging that some of the forms were given to people who had defected to other parties like the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and were “working openly with the opposition.” He demanded to know if Koshoedo’s position on the NWC gave him “the right to appoint leaders at his whims and caprices in the state.”
Linking the actions to future political ambition, George warned that the party’s deputy national secretary “should not allow his governorship ambition in 2027 to destroy PDP.” He pointed to the party’s poor performance in the last Lagos governorship election, which he said “was caused by self-aggrandizement, greed, inordinate and selfish ambition of some people.”
“Never again will we allow this to happen in our state,” George declared.
His language was strong, declaring Koshoedo a “political persona-non-grata in the state” and labelling his actions “nebulous,” “highly unacceptable,” “insulting, unacceptable, unjust, and unfair.”
He called on the NWC to step in, saying, “We appeal to you to use your good offices to remedy this situation before it escalates.” He assured that party members were “willing to pay for forms to be distributed in an honest, just, and fair manner.”
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