The crisis rocking the Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which culminated in parallel congresses at the weekend, deepened yesterday.

Leaders of the two groups engaged in a verbal war, each insisting not to shift ground for the other.

Former Deputy Governor Hazeem Gbolarumi vowed to prevent former Governor Rashidi Ladoja from hijacking the party from those he described as steady members.

He said Ladoja came to destroy the PDP in Oyo State.

Ladoja returned to the PDP last month from Accord, which he joined in 2010.

While the faction led by Ladoja at the weekend held its state congress at the Watershed Events Centre on Old Ife Road, the one led by Gbolarumi, Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande, Mr. Seyi Makinde, Sen. Hosea Agboola and others, held its congress at Baptist School, Oke-Ado.

Gbolarumi justified the parallel congresses, saying Ladoja took virtually all the principal officers under the pretext of ceding them to other parties, such as Labour Party (LP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

The former deputy governor accused Ladoja of treating the party as his personal business.

According to him, their original agreement was to run an all-inclusive party but Ladoja chose to exclude many others, including Makinde and his supporters from the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He also accused him of ignoring other party stalwarts such as Adeola-Akande, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja and himself in sharing party positions.

Gbolarumi said some prominent members were already considering leaving the party but he vowed to stay back and fight Ladoja.

He said: “We don’t even trust him at all. He has only come to destroy this party. The national leadership of the PDP should investigate my claims. He contested in Accord twice and failed. If he was that strong as he believes, why did he come back to the PDP? We have always been in the PDP. He has not come to add value but to destroy it but people like me won’t allow that because I don’t have any other party to go to. We are not cowards. Why should a tenant come and send away the landlord? It is not possible.”

But Ladoja’s spokesman Lanre Latinwo described the crisis as “a family affair”, saying it would be resolved in no time. He said sharing of party positions was based on the strength of each party in the last general election. He pointed out that the new State Chairman, Mr Kunmi Mustapha, for instance, is a PDP member, not Accord.