The crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party deepened on Tuesday as the Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee failed to reconcile the warring factions.
The party had on Saturday, August 12, at its non-elective convention in Abuja, dissolved the factional executive committees of the party in the state.
The Tuesday meeting which was presided by Makarfi was deadlocked as the two factions led by Mr. Iyiola Oyedepo and Mr. Sunday Fagbemi, failed to reach a compromise.
Makarfi and other members of the NCC had during the meeting excused the factions to arrive at a compromise, which did not work out.
This development led to disagreements among the members of the factions.
The Makarfi-led NCC had summoned the party stakeholders from the state to Abuja in a bid to reconcile them and engaged Senator Solomon Ewuga to serve as a mediator between the two warring factions.
But indications that the two-hour meeting ended without any compromise emerged as some of the stakeholders were seen discussing angrily in group while others hurriedly left the party premises.
Effort to seek further clarification by journalists was refused by the former Minister of National Planning, Prof. Suleiman Abubakar, who declined to speak with them but directed them to a former senator, Suleiman Ajadi.
But Ajadi angrily rebuffed the journalists and shouted at them saying, “What journalists, what journalists, can’t you see we are discussing?”
Earlier, Makarfi, while speaking during the opening session, had cautioned the two camps to toe the path of peace like other states that had resolved to work together, noting that Kwara State was reputed to be politically mature.
Makarfi, who further urged them to put their house in order, warned that they risked losing the party’s structure in the state to members that might join later.
He said, “Kwara State is the only state we are meeting with like this. We have four states that we already have submissions from them based on the resolutions passed and approved at the convention.
“All sides to the conflict in the states jointly signed and made a submission in the overall interest of the party. “
He said state chapters like Lagos and Adamawa, which he said were already making progress, would soon make their submissions to the NCC.
Makarfi said, “They didn’t require us to meet with them. Of all the seven states, we have four already and the others will conclude over the Sallah holidays.”
Meanwhile, the former ruling party in a statement by Chinwe Nnorum said that it was not just interested in functional devolution and equitable distribution of powers among the federal, state and local government levels in the country only.
Rather, it said that it was equally working hard with all its elected representatives across the country to restructure Nigeria for the common good of the citizens.
He said the All Progressives Congress was merely deceiving Nigerians about its plan to restructure the polity.
