SOME members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State opened the lid over the state of unease, division in the party when they recently accused the leader of the party in the State, Governor Ademola Adeleke of marginalisation, favouritism and victimization of party members tagged as his enemies. Rising from a meeting held in Osogbo, the group of party members held that their misgivings were not unfounded. Members of the group of party members that included Mr Ojo Williams, Mr Tunde Adewoyin, Mr Remi Arogundade, Dr Romoke Edu and Mrs Kudirat Nafiu held that it was high time the governor embraced all party members as one and stopped what they regarded as victimization and marginalization of some members.
For them, the governor should drop his pose of tilting towards and empowering a sect of party members and take up the mantra of being the governor for all and sundry. Apparently aggrieved at the state of things in the party, the party members charged Adeleke to be circumspect in his dealings with party members to avoid further division and marginalization within the party.
But the party leadership, through the publicity secretary, Ayodeji Areola kicked back, urging those party members to stop blackmailing the leader of the party and governor of the State, Senator Ademola Adeleke. The publicity secretary called out the select party members for playing to the gallery and toeing the line of inordinate sensationalism. The party accused some of its members of creating an impression of division in the party urging them to focus on more productive tendencies and how to move the party forward. They hit back defending the governor as carrying everyone along and would not be prodded, cajoled to satisfy individuals who had disconnected themselves from their various constituencies.
The battle for the soul of the Osun PDP may have been made keener as various stakeholders in the party strive to put themselves in pole position to determine who becomes the next National Vice Chairman, South-West, of the PDP, following the death of Mr Soji Adagunodo. Though the governor had after a meeting of the party announced the state chapter’s choice, to be forwarded to the national secretariat of the party, another divide of the party had its own choice different from Adeleke’s. Though the battle for the soul of Osun PDP has become a constant one, several party stakeholders are currently lending their voice to end the current issue. However, there are those insistent that all is well and that the oneness and unity of the party remains uncompromised.
The battle in the party has even taken the dimension of party chieftain trading words, issuing threats, recommending for suspension and actual expulsion from the party. One of those is that of Dotun Babayemi who chastised the party leadership in the state as being lawless and driven by impunity. Babayemi particularly castigated the chairman of the party, Mr Sunday Bisi for what he described as adopting kindergarten approach to rules of engagement. Not unexpected, Babayemi fell the full weight of the party’s hammer which announced his expulsion from the party. Sounding unshaken by the expulsion, Babayemi described his purported expulsion as one undertaken by some jesters, affirming that he remained a full-fledged member of the PDP. The odds against Babayemi looked enormous as the then caretaker chairman of the PDP in the State, Dr Akindele Adekunle similarly stated that the party had written to the then PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorcha Ayu, informing it of Babayemi’s expulsion. The caretaker chairman, in a statement, said PDP leaders from the ward to the local government and the state levels, approved of Babayemi’s expulsion from the party. The incumbent chairman, Mr Sunday Bisi, also affirmed Babayemi’s expulsion from the party.
Defending Babayemi’s suspension, the party chairman, Bisi said the former governorship aspirant was axed owing to his role prior to the 2022 gubernatorial primary which Adeleke won. In spite of the internal wrangling in the party, the party chairman maintains that the Osun PDP is one and with no faction.
According to Bisi, the party’s grouse against Babayemi is that: “After Governor Adeleke was elected as a flag bearer of the party, they went to court, against the constitution of the party. If you are having any issue with the party, the constitution stipulates that you must employ the internal organs of the party to settle any rift. He went to the High court, Appeal court, and he even went as far as Supreme Court. This was when he knew that, at that time, Ademola Adeleke had been elected as the governor of a state. He still went ahead to the Supreme Court and at that point if Ademola Adeleke was eventually disqualified, he would not be the beneficiary of that judgment. After the Supreme Court judgment then the party in its wisdom thought it wise that we cannot just continue like that. That was when he and few others who were in that saddle were suspended from the party. So, it has nothing to do with the congress at all. It is not a matter of faction. It is just Babayemi and his group who were working seriously for APC then. When they were suspended, they now went to court about their membership of the party and eventually the case dragged on for some time. They were initially given three months suspension. We don’t have faction in PDP we are one in PDP under the leadership of our able governor who is the leader of the party, Senator Nurudeen Jackson Ademola Adeleke.”
The battle between Babayemi and the party leadership in the state also has a legal angle. It would be recalled that an Osun State High Court sitting in Osogbo presided over by Justice Jide Falola, on September 6, 2022, in a suit No: HOS/M.212/2022 between Babayemi and PDP, INEC and ten others, granted an order of mandatory interim injunction restraining and reversing the expulsion of the plaintiff as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The court also debarred the party and its agents from taking further punitive measures against the plaintiff pending the determination of the final suit. The court later converted the interim order of mandatory injunction to preservative order of injunction.
Babayemi asserts that he is fighting for good governance and the common good of the people of the state. “Politics is for those who are interested in it and not for the selfish interest of a greedy few; it’s not a family thing but for the people. Whoever is threatened by our advocacy in this direction, will surely have a hard nut to crack in us. We shall never retreat until the dreams of forebears concerning our dear state are fulfilled,” Babayemi said.
To foster a united Osun PDP, various stakeholders advocate continuous mobilization of members into the PDP, optimistic that the party can get united and stronger ahead of the next electoral battle. Several party members are also making frantic efforts to engender unity and progress in the party.
Some party faithful trace the leadership tussle to the perceived role of PDP national leadership. According to some of them, the leadership has not demonstrated neutrality in the quest to reconcile the warring camps in the Osun State chapter. They claimed that the leadership made moves in the past to broker peace between the two camps but those efforts suffered setbacks. Some of the reconciliation meetings scheduled for Lagos, Abuja and other places could not go far enough especially in the final buildup to the governorship election last year. The camps traded accusations and counter-accusations for the occasional stalemate and indifference that characterised the planned meetings.
In a similar vein, some loyalists of the Osun PDP alleged that some external forces contributed to the schism in the party. According to them, some of those involved are from other states in the South-West said to be involved in a supremacy tussle at the zonal level. Somehow, the state chapters of the party of those leaders are also asphyxiated by internal contradictions. In the South-West, the Osun State chapter of the PDP parades majority of the leading lights in the party in the zone, nay the country. Those outstanding politicians include Chief Shaibu Oyedokun, Senator Olu Alabi, former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Apart from being major player in national politics, they also constituted the pillars of PDP that paved the way for the party to form government in the state before it bounced back to the Government House last year.
. TheWitness
