Osun election: Adeleke’s camp worries over litigation, woos PDP faction

The camp of the Osun state governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke, is worried over a suit filed by his rival in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s primary, Prince Dotun Babayemi, at the Court of Appeal, Akure, The Punch reports.

Telescope.ng gathered that members of the group, in separate interviews with the newspaper on Monday, July 18, admitted that the suit constituted danger to the PDP’s victory at the Osun state governorship election on Saturday, adding that the party had begun reconciliation with Babayemi.

Members of Adeleke camp who spoke on the matter included Osun acting PDP Chairman, Dr Adekunle Akindele; the director of media, Osun State PDP, Oladele Oluwabamiji, and the Secretary of the PDP Legal Committee, Hashim Abioye.

It was gathered that Adeleke’s camp was concerned that the external forces could exploit the case to truncate the party’s victory.

The PDP in Osun State had on March 8 conducted two governorship primaries featuring Adeleke and Babayemi.

While the primary which was held at the Osogbo City Stadium, under the supervision of Deputy Governor of Bayelsa, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, produced Adeleke, Babayemi was declared the winner at the primary held at the Children and Women Development Centre, Osogbo.

Consequently, Babayemi headed for the Federal High Court in Osogbo seeking to be declared the valid governorship candidate of the PDP.

But the court in a judgment by Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel affirmed Adeleke as the validly elected governorship candidate of the Osun State PDP.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Babayemi filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Akure, challenging the judgment of the lower court and seeking to be declared as the PDP governorship candidate.

The Director of Media of the Osun state PDP, Oluwabamiji, noted that all aggrieved party members constituted danger to the PDP victory, adding that no opportunity would be given to external forces to exploit the situation.

Oluwabamiji said: “My take is that any member of our party that is aggrieved is constituting some kind of danger, not to mention court cases.

“Grievance of major gladiators is enough as admittance of danger. I am aware that our leaders are not sleeping over it. They are still talking to Prince Dotun Babayemi and others in the party, not minding our victory at the polls. We are always better together. We are not taking anyone for granted.

“We believe everyone should come on board now so we can have a seamless administration; so that we can deliver our promises to the good people of Osun State. You know we cannot do that on the platform of rancourous relationship as a political party.”

Expressing confidence that Babayemi would yield to sound reasoning, the party chieftain said efforts are ongoing to pacify the factional governorship candidate.

He stated: “Dotun Babayemi is a prince and I’m sure that the blue blood in him will speak to his veins. We need a bit of fresh air which the good people of Osun State have put in place via the verdict during the gubernatorial election.

“We are still trying to talk to him and manage the situation. Differences cannot help anyone. We have seen the worst of what internal rancour can do to a political party. We won’t do anything that will leave us open to some other forces trying to creep in.”

The Osun acting PDP chairman, Akindele, expressed optimism that the case would be withdrawn and the matter resolved amicably.

Akindele assured: “In the first place, it is a mere academic exercise but since he is a member of our party and he is aggrieved, we have been meeting to find a political solution to it. We are optimistic that it will be resolved amicably and he will withdraw the case before Wednesday.”