Date: 2018-02-01

Some leaders of the PDP in Kwara State have expressed worry over alleged plan by Senate President Bukola Saraki to return to the party.

They alleged that Saraki would soon dump the APC for the PDP and thereafter contest the 2019 presidential ticket of the party, and by extension hijack the structure in his home state.

The PDP chairman in Kwara State, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, yesterday, led some political bigwigs in the state to the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, where they met with the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and pleaded with him not to allow Saraki to hijack the party.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Oyedepo said it was wrong to allow Saraki to "have his way" on the grounds that he left the party when he was expected to help in building and strengthening it.

"We are apprehensive of what the national leadership would do to welcome somebody who had gone away from the party and is being given a royal welcome into the party.

"It is not Saraki's coming that creates any fear, it is whatever the national leadership can do to encourage him to seize the party's structure from established people of Kwara State.

"Whoever is returning must respect the structure of our party and cooperate with us appropriately. We will welcome Saraki with open hands if he comes to be part of the party. We can't say somebody should not join our party.

"In plain language, the executive that is on ground was constitutionally elected for four years and parties are always in anticipation of new people joining them. You cannot dismantle the structure of a party because someone is joining the party," Oyedepo said.