Ayu, PDP NWC, Ademola Adeleke, others may Face Contempt Charge.

The lingering crisis in Osun State PDP may far from being over as Osun State High Court, Ijebujesa has nullified his purported election as the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party based on the organizer's disregard to an existing court injunction that stopped the use of 3bAd-Hoc delegates because of violence that characterized their election. Details below.

March 12, 2022

There is a new twist to the crisis rocking Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic party with a recent discarding of the parallel gubernatorial primary election at Osogbo township stadium where Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke emerged.

This was revealed in a court pronouncement at Osun State High Court, Ijebujesa which was presided over by Justic Dr. A. A. Aderibigbe who accused the PDP NWC and the organizers of the parallel Primary election of disobedience to an earlier court order where certain delegates were proscribed. Details of the proceedings leading to the affirmation of Dotu Babayemi as the validly elected candidate of PDP and Ademola as a product of illegal gathering is stated below.

On the 10th of March 2022, a case was instituted before his lordship Hon. Dr Justice A.A Aderibigbe sitting at the High Court of Justice Ijebu-Ijesa by 30 ward chairmen of the PDP on behalf of themselves and all ward executives officers elected on the 25th September 2021 at the ward congress of the Osun State PDP conducted under the supervision of the then party chairman Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo with the Peoples Democratic Party and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as respondents. 

The plaintiffs/applicants sought an order of mandatory interim injunction to validate the primaries conducted on the 8th of March 2022 wherein the ward executives voted on the 25th of September 2021 in numerous wards across the state as delegates with full compliance to the judgment of the court delivered on 22nd of November 2021 and an order of interim injunction granted on the 3rd of March 2022, affirming the 215 ward executives officers as the authentic and or authorized elected ward executives permitted permitted to vote as delegates at the party primaries. 

The applicants also sought an Order of mandatory interim injunction of the court restraining the defendants/respondents from recognizing any other governorship primaries conducted on 8th of March apart from the ward primaries conducted on the 8th of March wherein ward executives elected in the said wards voted as delegates in the primaries in full compliance with the judgment of the court on 22nd of November 2021 affirming the plaintiffs/respondents as the authentic and authorized ward executive officers permitted as delegates to vote in the primary election.

The applicants also sought an Order of Mandatory interim injunction setting aside and/or nullifying all actions taken in flagrant disobedience of the judgment of the court delivered on 25th November 2021 and the order of interim injunction granted on the 3rd of March 2022 affirming the plaintiffs/respondents as the authentic and authorized ward executive officers permitted as delegates to vote in the primary election.

Upon reading the motion ex-parte and affidavits of Mr Adedokun Ademola from ward 1, Egbedore local government and after hearing the counsel for the applicants/plaintiffs moved the above mentioned applications which was granted by the presiding judge Hon. Justice Dr A.A Aderibigbe.

What this means is that the congregation of a particular section of the party on the 8th of March 2021 at the Osogbo stadium to supposedly conduct a governorship primary that saw to the emergence of Sen. Ademola Adeleke was in flagrant disobedience to an already existing court order and that exercise after the granting of the motion by the applicants has been declared null and void. 

The exercise that took place at the stadium was nothing more than mere political jamboree with no consequential effects on the candidacy of the PDP in the coming gubernatorial election. 

To make it clearer any election conducted with any delegate list asides from that of the 215 ward executives elected under the supervision of the then party Chairman, Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo is not tenable as it is not just illegal but an affront on the judgment of the court.

This being said and the order of a court of competent jurisdiction that pronounced Prince Dotun Babayemi and affirmed him as the duly elected candidate of the party it is pertinent to let all stakeholders of PDP at all levels know that they owed it a duty to impress it on the Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee to retrace their steps and work in accordance and in compliance to the rule of law lest they all become complicit in abuse of the rule of law and become contemptuous of the court.