OSUN: Crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) chapter in the State, weekend, deepened following refusal of ex-party’s factional governorship candidate, Mr Dotun Babayemi to withdraw case against the party and the governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
Recall that Babayemi contested the PDP ticket with Adeleke at a parallel primary held at WOCDIF centre in Osogbo, while Adeleke emerged as candidate from similar exercise held at Osogbo township Stadium which was supervised by the party’s National Secretariat and INEC.
Though Babyemi lost the suit against the party and Adeleke at both the High Court and Appeal Court, he has vowed to pursue the matter to the Apex court.
But the PDP, in a statement by its Caretaker Chairman, Dr Akindele Adekunle, yesterday, warned Babayemi against colluding with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to truncate the party’s recent victory at the poll.
The party said: “It is worrisome Babayemi’s refusal to listen to calls by elders of his group who urged him to discontinue legal challenge on Osun PDP primary, reminding him that he is increasingly emerging as an instrument of a defeated governor who is struggling to come to term with his crushing defeat at the poll.
“While the aspirant had filed several cases and failed to upturn due process decision of the party, the party noted that the last ruling of the Court of Appeal should put paid to further litigation on the primary, warning that any decision to pursue the issue further will smack of open anti-party activity and a direct disrespect for the people of Osun state who voted massively for Senator Ademola Adeleke.
“The party not only duly authorized the primary, the right delegates participated at the right venue with right statutory supervision while a valid court order equally mandated the holding and organisation of the governorship primary.
“We are, therefore, constrained to call on Babayemi to toe the path of honour and embrace the overwhelming choice of Osun people. Any hope of stealing people’s mandate for Senator Ademola Adeleke through the backdoor is a venture doomed from conception. Enough is enough.”
However, Babayemi in a statement by his media aide, Oladiran Ojedele said: “Our symbol, Omooba Dotun Babayemi is not seeking to truncate PDP’s victory but he’s out for justice, seeking to claim his mandate at the law court. Is such lawful trajectory out of place? For all those who are now crying wolf, what genuine efforts did they make to ensure the PDP is not exposed to litigation?
“Why would Akindele and those in his mould choose to approbate and reprobate at the same time. Just recently, the Dr Adekunle Akindele-led Caretaker Committee was removed by the National Working Committee, NWC, of our great party, PDP, but went to the law court to stop the party from replacing them with a more non-factional Caretaker Committee for Osun State PDP. This Committee headed by Akindele is the one serving as a tool now being used to subvert the legitimate wheels of justice.”
In another related story, the Northern Patriotic Front, NPF, has faulted late night voting in Ede South and Ede North.
In a report by its Administrative Secretary, Rasheed Shuaib, the Civil Society Group also observed that there was vote buying in some of the polling units its members visited, urging Nigerians not to leave the fight against vote buying to CSOs and the anti-graft agencies alone, insisting that all hands must on deck to eradicate the menace.
It said: “In some of the polling units visited by our members, the security agents were seen to be compromised by some of the political parties.
“In some of the polling units, there are separate queues of male and female. Two BVAS were deployed to some of the polling units visited with less than 800 registered voters while in some other polling units with the same number of registered voters, one BVAS was deployed.”
On the late night voting, the CSO said: “According to the electoral guideline, the official close of voting at polling units is 2:30pm. In most of the polling units visited and as reported by the NPF observers, voting was concluded at various polling units across the State by 2:30pm in accordance with the electoral law as amended 2022.
“However, this was not followed in some of the polling units in Ede axis where voting was still going on till around 9:00pm. This is clearly against the provision of the Electoral Act. This anomaly was also reported by some other observer groups’ analysis in the media.
“The conduct of election in Ede South and Ede North should be investigated to assist the Commission in preventing admitting voters to queue after the stipulated time.”
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