Lagos Polls: You’re Free To Adopt Any Party, Makarfi Tells PDP Members

The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ‎said it will not decide for its loyalists, the political platform they may consider appropriate to contest the forthcoming local government elections in Lagos State.

The faction, however, denied that it has instructed its members to use the platform of a newly registered political party to achieve their political ambition.

There had been reports over the weekend that the Makarfi faction of the PDP had told its members in Lagos to register with the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA)‎.

APDA, which is one of the five newly registered political parties to be unveiled soon by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has Mallam Kabir Shittu, a former member of the ‘PDP Rescue Group’ as it interim National Chairman.

But in a statement Tuesday, spokesperson of the Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, while denying the directive, said it recognised the anxiety of PDP members in the pending elections since the party platform was still in dispute.

According to the statement, while it would like to avoid the situation in Edo and Ondo governorship elections, which PDP lost due to internal crisis: ‎”State chapters are allowed to take any decision they consider appropriate.

“That was why we deliberately decided not to run parallel congresses in Anambra State in order not to subject our party members in that state to the agony of a disputed platform.”

It said the decision was taken in view of the fact that the appeal before the Supreme Court was not likely to be adjudicated before the elections.