He also summoned an emergency meeting of all former aspirants, for Monday, intending to enable unity and cohesion ahead of the next elections. Adebutu spoke on Friday at the party secretariat in Abeokuta, the state capital, during presentation of certificate of return to Senate, House of Representatives and the House of Assembly candidates.

 While Showunmi is laying claim to the party’s ticket having emerged at a parallel primary, Lawal had written the Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led leadership of the party calling for the cancellation of the primary election over alleged manipulation of delegates’ list.

However, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had earlier this week presented a certificate of return to Adebutu, thereby recognizing him as the candidate of the party in the state.

Adebutu pleaded to his contenders and other aspirants who lost out in the primaries to bury the hatchet and work together with him to improve the chances of the party reclaiming the state in the 2023 election. He insisted that he was determined at fostering unity in the party by working with all the aggrieved members, saying a divided party cannot win the election.

Adebutu said, “I’m determined to bring everybody on board because those that have won the primaries, won not because they are the best and not because they have the total number of votes, so those that lost out must not be left behind that is why I’m determined to always carry everybody along and I think that is the beauty of PDP. “We are not known for imposing. I think we have successfully managed well democratically and we are still managing the situation.

“We must endeavor to have a big happy family so that we can face the challenges at hand. We recognized that we are still in the opposition and the work at hand is extensive and we know the antics of the misgovernance of the APC, we are hoping to take over power from them come 2023.”