Posted by By Gabriel Dike, Osogbo on
Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has denied media reports that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in the South West asked former President Olusegun Obasanjo to step down as chairman of the party's Board of Trustees (BoT).
Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has denied media reports that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in the South West asked former President Olusegun Obasanjo to step down as chairman of the party's Board of Trustees (BoT).
Some newspapers had reported on Saturday that the governors and some leaders of the party who met with Obasanjo on Friday in Abeokuta asked him to relinquish his BoT post.
The governors were said to have taken the decision during a meeting at the Ogun Government House after the meeting with the former president in his hilltop mansion in Abeokuta.
Sources close to the meeting said the governors' position was based on a plot to convene a BoT meeting on June 25 at the Presidential Villa in Abuja without Obasanjo's knowledge and that his removal was part of the agenda.
But in a swift reaction in a statement issued by his Special Adviser (Media), Lasisi Olagunju, Oyinlola described the reports as false in all ramifications.
According to the governor, the issue of chairmanship of the PDP's BOT was not discussed at the Abeokuta meeting nor was it on the meeting's agenda.
"We did not ask former President Obasanjo to resign as the PDP BOT chairman. The chairmanship of the Board of Trustees is a constitutional matter, which no one except the appropriate organ of the party can act on.
"The meeting we had on Friday in Abeokuta was centred on the political situation in Ogun State as it affects the party because problem in one state is problem for all. Media reports to the contrary were misleading and disappointing," Oyinlola said.
The Friday meeting with Obasanjo was a follow-up to an earlier one held last Sunday in Ibadan on how to reposition and strengthen the party in the zone.