The Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared support for Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord party in Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State, citing a Court of Appeal judgment that upheld its own candidate.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP Interim National Working Committee, Mr Ini Ememobong, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Ememobong said the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday “upheld the nomination of Adebayo Adedamola as the party’s candidate for the election in the state,” as submitted by the Turaki-led faction.
“The panel of the court held that the party, having duly conducted primaries which were monitored by INEC and the name of the winner forwarded to the commission, there was no legal impediment to the participation of the candidate in the election,” he said.
He added that the court also “directed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately include the party’s logo on the ballot for the election.”
“Specifically, it held that the access code for nomination on the portal was a mere administrative formality which cannot override the statutory provision of forwarding names to the commission, which PDP had done,” Ememobong stated.
He accused INEC of bias against the Turaki-led INWC, which he described as “the legitimate leadership of the party.”
“The primaries that produced our candidate was peaceful, transparent, and the result uncontested,” Ememobong said.
“It was duly monitored by INEC, but the commission blatantly refused to recognise our candidate thereafter and withheld the codes for the upload of candidates from us.
“The party approached the court and today the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal by the Turaki-led PDP and directed INEC to include the party’s logo on the ballot papers for the elections,” he said.
However, Ememobong said the delay had denied the party’s candidate the opportunity to campaign.
“Though justice had finally been done, the delay amounted to a denial, as there was no opportunity for Adedamola to undertake campaigns in preparation for the election,” he said.
Ememobong described the situation as “ugly” and said “it would have been avoided had INEC acted in partisan way.”
Faced with the development, the INWC said it had resolved to support Governor Adeleke.
“Faced with the unimaginable difficulty that the situation put on PDP, the iNWC choose to throw its weight behind the Accord party candidature, Gov. Ademola Adeleke,” he said.
“As a true opposition party and in defence of multi-party democracy, and after exhaustive consultations with key stakeholders, the committee has decided to support the candidature of Gov. Adeleke of Accord party for Saturday’s governorship election.”
He urged PDP members in Osun to vote for Adeleke.
“We therefore ask all our members to vote for Gov. Adeleke.
“We encourage them to go out on Saturday to vote, defend their votes and ensure that their votes count in the election,” he said.
Ememobong also cautioned against a “do-or-die approach to election,” saying: “Elections must be a true reflection of the people’s wish, freely expressed through the ballot. Anything short of that is robbery and must not be allowed to stand.”