We Did Not Stop PDP South West Congress..Court Affirms

 

An Ado-Ekiti High Court headed by Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi has denied claims that it gave an order stopping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding its South-West Zonal Congress today in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Justice Ogunyemi stated this in a reaction to the observation by the lead counsel to the defendants in the suit, Prince Ajibola Oluyede, that the postponement of the congress was published in a national daily by some people on the order of the court.

When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, Oluyede held that there was a recourse to the publication that the court gave the order and urged it to bring contempt charges against the claimants for alleged breach of court processes.

Claimants in the suit are former Ekiti State governor Chief Olusegun Oni, who is also a former national vice chairman of the PDP, and Mr Ireti Oniyide, a former zonal financial secretary of the party.

Counsel to the claimants, Mr Olalekan Olatawura, who denied that the publication was done by his clients, said such document was a public matter and anybody could have access to it.

He challenged Oluyede to prove that his clients were behind it.

But Oluyede replied that the publication had informed the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP to put on hold the zonal congress.

Justice Ogunyemi said the publication was a deliberate falsification of the proceedings of the court and reiterated that he only granted two of the reliefs sought by the claimants.

Following the court order restraining the PDP from presenting candidates to occupy the Southwest slots in the National Working Committee (NWC), some chieftains of the party are bent on ensuring that former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, returns to the seat of national secretary which the court has declared vacant.

Other politicians and groups are also insisting that a new candidate who will be loyal to the top hierarchy of the party take over the position.

The development has unsettled the party leadership as the opposing groups, in an attempt to outsmart one another, are widening the crisis within the party despite the efforts at the national secretariat to reconcile all aggrieved members.