The Ladi Adebutu faction of Ogun State People Democratic Party (PDP) has described the suit filed the factional Chairman of the party, Hon Sikirulai Ogundele against the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGISIEC) as frivolous and dead-on arrival.
Penpushing reports that the Ogundele led faction of the party in the suit has called on the court to disqualified of what it called non-members as candidates of the party in the forthcoming local government election in the state.
The Adebutu led faction of the party in reaction through a statement by its Publicity Secretary Arc. Kayode Adebayo Publicity Secretary said Ogundele and his cohorts have embarked on the voyage of laying a judicial ambush for the party by filing an action at the Ogun State High Court, Abeokuta, challenging the presentation of candidates for the coming Local Government election
‘The attention of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State has been drawn to the frivolous suit instituted by the former State Chairman of the Party, Dr. Sikirulai Ogundele, and his cohorts’, the statement read.
‘Dr. Sikirulai Ogundele and the purported 13 Local Government Chairmen have embarked on the voyage of laying a judicial ambush for the Party by filing an action at the Ogun State High Court, Abeokuta, challenging the presentation of candidates for the coming Local Government election’, Adebayo wrote
‘Their argument was premised on the fact that certain persons whose names are not in the registers authenticated by the national leadership (NWC) of the party for the recently held ward, congresses cannot be fielded as candidates of the party’, the statement added.
‘These mischief makers are shamelessly asking the court to pronounce the sponsorship of the candidates of the party in the forthcoming Local Government election as being null and void ab initio and also praying the court to order OGSIEC to delete the Chairmanship, Vice-Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates of the Party’.
‘We are surprised that Dr Sikirukai Ogundele would descend so low to submit himself to be used as a tool by the ruling APC in Ogun State. We are aware of the initial ploy by the APC to manipulate OGSIEC to receive a parallel list of candidates from Ogundele. This script failed because of Ogundele’s inability to enlist the understanding of Party members in this illicit trade’.
‘We are again surprised that Ogundele could not disembark from this fruitless merchandising but rather go to court to seek an order to prevent the party from participating in the coming Local Government election’.
‘We know that the reason to employ Sikirukai Ogundele to scuttle PDP chances is that the acceptability being received by our popular candidates across the 236 wards and 20 Local Governments is already becoming a nightmare for Governor Dapo Abiodun, all the APC candidates and their collapsing Party’, it stated.
‘Though the Party is yet to be served with this process, we know it is going to be dead on arrival. Ogundele’s argument is fueled by his chosen pretence to be oblivious to the letters of the Constitution of our Party’.
‘The registers of the Party, according to Section 8(2) and (3), are expected to be authenticated by the Ward Chairman and Secretary and not as ignorantly claimed in the said suit. There is nowhere in the Constitution of the Party where the NWC is empowered to authenticate the register of the Party. They can, therefore, not rely on their intuition or fantasy to fetch them this destructive aspiration’.
‘The APC should rather go and face the electorates with what their Party has achieved under Governor Dapo Abiodun’s leadership rather than using Dr Ogundele to sleeve the PDP with shackles. The APC is aware that Ogun State people are tired and do not want to continue to gamble with their destinies trapped in the hands of the APC’.
‘We, therefore, besiege the judiciary to stay off this shenanigan and stand aloof from this orchestrated mischief and ignoble course jointly being planned by APC and its political merchant in the PDP’, the statement added.
‘The time prescribed by OGSIEC for filing objections to candidates to be sponsored by political parties has elapsed. The court cannot help an indolent litigant. Equity aids the vigilant. So their case, even if truly filed, is dead on arrival’.
‘The Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State is ready for this election, and we are prepared to win. We participated in all the processes leading to the publishing of the candidates’ names for the coming LG Election, and OGSIEC has so far been cooperating. We, therefore, plead with our candidates to stay calm and continue with their campaigns’, Adebayo added
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