EXCLUSIVE: Lagos PDP mulls Jandor’s suspension
The future political trajectory of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State in the March 18 governorship election, Olajide Adediran (Jandor) may hit the rock soon as the leadership and elders of the party are considering his suspension over alleged ‘Insubordination’, WesternPost gathered.
Adediran came a distant third in the governorship election, with 62,449 out of the over 1.4million votes cast, although, he blamed his poor performance on the lack of support from his party’s leadership and elders.
He also faulted the endorsement of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour by the PDP elders few days to the governorship poll.
WesternPost gathered that the elders of the party were angered by the post-election comments by Adediran directed at some of them, most especially, Chief Bode George, who is the leader of the party in the state.
Reliable sources told WesternPost that the party had perfected plans to suspend indefinitely its governorship candidate having cautioned him not to promote the interest of his group, Lagos4Lagos Movement, above the party.
Sources hinted further that the elders were only waiting for the election to be concluded and then take punitive actions against Adediran, adding it was the reason why the leadership of the party decided not to participate in his campaign activities.
“Jandor will soon be suspended indefinitely for his insubordination. PDP is not like APC where he came from to join us and rattled everyone to clinch the ticket and even handpicked candidates for the House of Assembly. We have elders we so much respect and honour their political judgement. He came into the party with arrogance and lack of respect for constituted authority.
“He places more importance to his ‘Lagos4Lagos Movement’ than the party itself and this is not who we are in Lagos PDP. We don’t place group or caucus above party in our activities and decisions. He has been directed to dissolve his group within the party, failure to comply with the directive will amount to his indefinite suspension.
“Now, with the poor outing at the poll, it is clear to him he can’t do it all with his Lagos4Lagos Movement. Instead of him to retrace his step in the party, he resorted to denigrating the leaders and elders of the party. I am sure you are aware that the leadership has issued a stern warning to him regarding his post-election comments on the leadership.
“Jandor as far as we concerned is still a new member of our party who needs to have clear understanding of our political culture and readings of how Lagos PDP is managed. He should not think because he came and was handed the governorship ticket with ease makes him the leader of Lagos PDP,” one of the sources said.
Speaking with WesternPost, the Lagos PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr Hakeem Amode, said that the leadership of the party in the state, headed Mr Philip Aivoji has not met to take a stance on the election experience.
Amode explained that final decision or action on any member of the party would be taken by the State Executive Council, adding that those that have been speaking and issuing warnings were doing so in their personal capacity.
He said that the state chairman leads the party in a state where there is no governor and so, nobody or group of elders is saddled with the responsibility to decide the fate of any member.
