My leaving or staying in PDP rests on Jonathan —Oyinlola

FORMER Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, at the weekend, held a crucial parley with his supporters in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on issues bordering on his struggle to reclaim his position as the national secretary of the party through the judiciary. Nigerian Tribune authoritatively gathered that Oyinlola, who was under intense pressure by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to team up with the incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola to ensure victory for APC in the governorship election, was said to have informed his loyalists that his decision to leave or stay in PDP rested on President Goodluck Jonathan. The impeccable source, who was part of a meeting held at the Okuku country home of the former governor on Saturday evening, said “Oyinlola informed us that he would remain committed to the PDP, regardless of his travails over the protracted battle on national secretaryship, which is now before the Supreme Court in Abuja.” According to the source, the former governor restated his firm conviction that he remained the only legally recognised national secretary of PDP, saying he (Oyinlola) would only consider leaving the party “if the president tells him to go.” Oyinlola was also quoted to have said that President Jonathan was deeply and actively involved in the process that produced him as the secretary, adding that if he would have to change party, only the president’s order to leave could make him dump his party. “The meeting was just to know exactly the stand of Prince Oyinlola.The visit by the APC leaders and the series of reports that followed it are making some of us uncomfortable and he has assured us of his readiness to support the PDP,” the source hinted. On the non-involvement of Oyinlola in the electioneering activities of the PDP governorship candidate in the state, the source said “Oyinlola informed us that since his suspension has not been lifted, he was not allowed to participate in party activities.”[Nigerian Tribune]