The Internal Crisis That Cost PDP The 2015 Elections – Babatope | #Politics

A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, yesterday, in Benin City, declared that the zoning arrangement of the party, jettisoned after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, led to the defeat of the party in the last presidential election.

While delivering a lecture entitled: “Nigeria’s 16 Years of Democratic Experiment-Which Way Forward?, organized by Edo State New Dawn, a group under the PDP in the state, Babatope noted that “the PDP did not resolve the agitation by northern leaders that the presidency should be ceded to the area due to the sudden death of Yar’Adua until the problem consumed the party and made way for the defeat in the 2015 presidential election”.

“Facts remain, however, that we (party elders) made mistakes in the preparations of our party for the elections. For example, it was wrong for our party’s Board of Trustees not have met when we were engulfed with the party campaigns for the elections. Our party played into the waiting hands of the opposition with this kind of situation,” Babatope stated.

“Any of the political parties in Nigeria that attempts to bring impunity to our system or that attempts to push off the effective voice of the people in the determination of its presidential candidate will kiss the political dust and sentence itself to total failure and collapse.”

The event was attended by members of the party mainly from Edo South, led by the leader of the group and former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Rowland Owie; High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, chairman of the occasion; Dr Isimeme and Chief Samson Esemuede. Others are PDP governorship aspirant, Chief Solomon Edebiri; Hon.Ifaluyi Isibor and many others.