According to Punch newspaper, a former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and the Chairman, Mobilisation and Organisation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, are set for a showdown as both of them appeared before the screening committee at the party’s headquarters in Abeokuta on Thursday.
Both of them are senatorial aspirants, vying to fill the Ogun East senatorial seat on the platform of the PDP. Kashamu had earlier been screened ahead of Daniel, who arrived almost an hour after. They were screened by a five-man screening committee set up by the party.
Kashamu said he was in the race to give his people a good representation in the Senate, stressing that there was nothing wrong being in the race. He said, “We are two from the party contesting. Otunba Daniel is my rival. But one has to step down for the other but I don’t know who is going to step down for the other, but I believe he is going to step down for me.” Daniel, who acknowledged the contribution of Kashamu to the party, while he was away, said both of them would talk things over.
He said, “Prince Kashamu has given a good account of himself in terms of the way he has supported the party especially when I was not there. “So he has come and said he wants to do it. We will see whether we can talk it over; somebody will do it.” The former governor acknowledged that the battle ahead would be fierce but said he would not be a party to do-or-die politics.
“I have obtained my form and I have just been screened. There is no one that is sure of anything. “In all of these, what you have to do is to pray to God that you win. You know it is not a do-or-die process,” he added. The state chairman, Bayo Dayo, who received both aspirants among other members of the party executive council, said all the aspirants would be given a level-playing field, the Punch newspaper said.