AHEAD of the 2019 general election,
the Senate President, Dr. Bukola
Saraki, has started negotiating for
his return to the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, Nigerian Pilot 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”.
