Adeniran: PDP Has Been Purchased, Pocketed

• Says defection to SDP is movement for new order
• Ogiadhome denies leaving party

Olawale Olaleye

Former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, last night, said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been ‘purchased and pocketed’ by some members of the party and has therefore lost its place in decent party politics.

Adeniran, who said this while justifying the defection of some members of the PDP, including himself to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), said the idea behind leaving PDP for the SDP was a movement for a new order in party politics.

In another breath, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Ogiadhome, whose name was mentioned as one of those leaving the PDP for SDP has come out to deny the news, saying he had no link whatsoever with the idea.

Adeniran, who seemed to have had it full with the PDP, said the former ruling party was the architect of its own failure, and that the need for all lovers of democracy and its practice to come to the rescue of the nation was no longer debatable.

“We call it movement for a new order, because PDP has been purchased and pocketed by a few individuals in the party. If you properly analyse the developments in the PDP, you would agree that the PDP was the architect of its own failure,” he explained. Adeniran, however, contended that SDP would give their followers the opportunity to actualise their political ambitions with strict observance of internal democracy. He claimed the SDP was not a party that has been irredeemably committed to the banditry that has led the nation to where it is.

Asked why he didn’t give the PDP peace initiative a chance and let go, he quickly retorted, saying: “Let go of corruption? Let go of impunity? Let go of irregularities or let go of the insult to my entire region? It was all over the news. You all heard it.”

While noting that there were still some good people in the PDP, Adeniran, who cited the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson as one of such people, said his leaving the PDP was not personal by all means possible, but of principles and core values.

“We cannot put something on nothing. They are not apologetic about their arrogance in power”, he explained, even as he cited the duo of Professor Jerry Ghana and Professor Junaid Mohammed as some of their members.
Meanwhile, Oghiadomhe, in a statement has described the report as misleading, insisting that he was “still a full member of PDP.

“My attention has been drawn to a publication in the social media and to correct the misleading report by mischief makers of my exit from PDP to SDP.

“For the record, I was never part of any group where a decision was made of dumping PDP for SDP. To my great party PDP and millions of our members, no one has my mandate to determine or associate my name to any political party without my written consent.

“Whoever must have been affiliated my name to any political party other than PDP does not have my mandate and this should be disregarded as the handiwork of mischief makers, reiterating that “his membership and loyalty is to PDP alone, which is my party of choice since its formation”.