Ibadan can’t host PDP convention now - Adedibu

By Jackson Udom and Adeolu Adeyemo - 15.02.2008

INDICATIONS emerged in Ibadan on Thursday that the forthcoming national delegates’ convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would be held in Abuja and not Ibadan as being speculated.

The indications emerged as a national chairmanship candidate of the PDP and former governor of Ebonyi State,Dr. Sam Egwu, led his campaign train to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, to woo delegates to the convention.

There were rumours in political circles some days ago that the venue of the party convention had been shifted to Ibadan in order to give the party a national outlook. However, a chieftain of the party, Chief Lamidi Adedibu, who spoke with newsmen after hosting Egwu in his Molete residence, said “the party in the state was ill-prepared to host the convention going by the logistics, security and other things which should have been put in place before the state can conveniently host the convention.”

According to Alhaji Adedibu, “we have decided that the convention should hold in Abuja because we are not prepared for it in Ibadan. It involves a lot of things like safety of lives, security of personnel and logistics.” Adedibu gave indications that “the entire delegates from the South-West shall speak with one voice at the convention, boasting that the South-West would deliver a bloc vote for the candidate of our choice”.

He stated that leaders of the party from the South-West had been strategising for the purpose of a common candidate for the convention. “When we speak in the South-West, we speak with one voice.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives was here and he won’t do anything on his own because he will support the cause of the South-West for the convention”.