PDP cancels South-West congress

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said that it will not hold the South-West zonal congress of the party originally scheduled for Saturday (today).

The party said that it was recalling its officers already sent to Akure, the Ondo State capital, where the congress was originally scheduled to hold.
National Secretary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.

Oladipo said that the decision to stop the congress was in deference to the order of Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which restrained the party from going ahead with its zonal congress.

Apart from Akure, another faction of the party had planned to hold a separate zonal congress in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State. But in positive answer to an ex parte application brought before him on Thursday by the incumbent PDP South-West Zonal Secretary, Chief ‘Pegba Otemolu, Justice Buba restrained the party from going ahead with the scheduled congress.

The judge said the order would subsist until the final determination of Otemolu’s main suit.

Oladipo said that as a law abiding party, the PDP would not disobey the court order.

He said that the South West re-elected Zonal Secretary of PDP, Chief Gbenga Otemolu had approached the court urging it to stop the congress, as the current executives in the zone were yet to complete their tenure.

He said that Otemolu went to court on behalf of his colleagues that they were elected in 2014 and that their four years tenure as specified in the party’s constitution cannot end until 2018.

He said, “We are a law-abiding party. I have been served the court order and as a respondent in the case, I’m telling you that we are not going to flout the order of the court.

“I’m also aware that the Independent National Electoral Commission will also not be at the congress.

“I, as the National Secretary of the party, and Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju, the National Auditor, who are the two representatives of the zone, want to tell you that the party has decided to abide by the order.

“As a matter of fact, we are withdrawing our officers who have been sent to conduct the congress. We will stay action on it until the case is determined by the court.” Asked if the order would affect the party’s national convention scheduled for May 21, Oladipo said it would not in any way affect the congress.

He said that delegates for the national convention had been elected during the party’s ward, local government and states congresses concluded in most states recently.

However, the National Chairman of the party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, said he had yet to be served the court order.

Sheriff, who spoke through his Media Assistant, Mallam Inuwa Bwala, said he was speaking from Jalingo, Taraba State.

He said, “I have not received any court order. I am in Taraba preparing for my congress.

“As of the time I left the office yesterday, I did not receive a court order. If I receive a court order, I will not conduct the congress.

“I have not seen the national secretary. He was meant to be in Osun. I have not received any court order.

“I have given directives before I left that there should be a congress. I will only stop when court gives me order to stop.

“The national secretary, I have not seen him, I have not spoken to him. I am in Taraba right now trying to do my congress.”

On whether the congress will definitely hold, he said, “Yes,” but added that it would stop as soon as he sees “the order because I am a law-abiding citizen. I don’t have a court order yet. Therefore, the congress may go on.”