Ogun PDP Crisis: Secondus Rejects INEC’s Position on Leadership

 

Secondus 

THE crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State has taken a fresh turn following the refusal of its national leadership to accept the position taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on it. Uche Secondus The commission had recently  recognised  Mr. Adebayo Dayo as the state chairman of the party. Dayo and his group were denied participation at the national elective convection of the party held in Abuja on December 9, 2017. 

INEC and the PDP national leadership had until recently recognised  Mr. Sikirulai Ogundele as the state chairman of the party, a development that resulted in several litigations, culminating in a recent judgment of the Federal High Court, Lagos, which ruled in  favour  of Dayo. But INEC, in a letter dated April 12, 2018, and signed by its Secretary to the Commission, Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu said that it was now relating with Dayo. 

Ogakwu said that the commission took the decision “in compliance with the Judgment of the Federal High Court, Lagos in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1556/2017 delivered on 9th February 2018 and has notified the National Chairman of the PDP of its compliance with the said  judgement.” 

However, the PDP Chairman, Prince Secondus and the party’s National Secretary, Senator Umaru Tsauri, in a letter to INEC, said that the leadership crisis had been resolved. In the letter, dated April 20, they claimed that the Supreme Court had settled the matter in its landmark judgment in PDP VS. Sheriff case on July 2, 2017, quoting the apex court as saying that “it is unfortunate this internal party crisis has staggered a lot of its anticipated progress. 

In any case, it is my hope this imbroglio within the appellant will serve as an appellate court.”   Secondus and Tsauri, therefore, asked the commission to withdraw its recognition of the Dayo-led executive. The letter added: “It will, therefore, amount to an inexplicable volte-face and unfortunate summersaults if INEC were to withdraw the recognition of the approved officials of our party in Ogun State, especially the State Executive Committee led by Sikirulai Ogundele.

 “This will certainly throw the party back into avoidable conflict. We believe this cannot be your intention or wish for our party.” Dayo tackles Secondus Dayo has on his part, sent another strongly-worded letter to Secondus, in which he wondered whether the party chairman was sitting as an appellate court  to  the decided case. 

The letter read in part: “I am honestly amazed and shocked that you lent yourself to write INEC against its lawfully taken position to give recognition to my executive, out of your flagrant disobedience of subsisting court judgments of which you were corporately (as PDP) a party to the suit. 

“Ridiculously, all your submissions in the letter to INEC were carbon-copy duplication of your solicitor’s submissions to the court before judgment was delivered to which INEC responsibly chose to obey and instructed you in polite administrative terms to comply. “Maybe you now wish to sit in appeal over Nigerian High Court judgments to interpret to your regulatory body, INEC, which judgment to obey and which not to at your discretion? 

“Aside from this, your unnecessary letter to INEC bore gross misrepresentation of facts and distortion of the issues. “Therein it was erroneously claimed that it’s the exclusive right of the National Executive Committee, NEC of our party to determine leaders of the various organs whereas the party constitution is clear on how the ward Exco up to the state Excos and even through which the said NEC  were  to emerge.

 “If the NEC has such powers, then what’s the essence of  a ward, LG and state congresses?” “Except for the national party officer’s self-serving and undemocratic tampering with the process; the NEC involvement should ideally be purely monitoring and not the egocentric manipulations as is now the case talk less (sic) of false claims of exclusive right to determine various organs and Exco leaders.”