Rancour As PDP chair, Secondus Adopts Ademola Adeleke

° Party members kick against imposition
° Harps on level playing ground

By Sunday Oguntuyi, Osogbo

The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus has reportedly adopted Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke as the candidate of the party for the forthcoming 2022 governorship election in Osun State.

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prince Diran Odeyemi stated this while delivering what he described as “a goodwill message” from Secondus to some members of the party at a factional interdenominational prayer session held at the controversial secretariat of the party in Osogbo, the state capital, Monday.

Quoting Secondus, Odeyemi said, “it does not matter if anybody else comes out to contest against Ademola Adeleke. The fact remains that the National Chairman has no other candidate in mind.”

Irked by the declaration, differing members of the party described the stance of the national chairman of the PDP as unbecoming of a charismatic leader and another affront against Dr Bukola Saraki-led reconciliation committee of the party.

The party faithful warned the chairman of the party against inflammatory statements and warned him to desist from divisive comments that could disintegrate the party further.

They reiterated their commitment to the party and called for a level playing ground party primaries.

It will be recalled that the State Chairman of the party, Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo has been at loggerheads with the National Working Committee of the party for wrongly removing him based on frivolous (~an~) allegations of malfeasance, maladmninstration and anti-party activities _which was_ orchestrated by supporters of Ademola Adeleke who see his commitment to fair play as a threat to the ambition of Senator Ademola Adeleke.

Consequently_ the, PDP NWC ordered Adagunodo to step aside as the party chairman for seven months _but_ without _necessary_ investigation and _he_was later _removed from office as state chairman__and was to be later replaced by the party Publicity Secretary, Mr Sunday Bisi._ This unpopular step as taken by the NWC led to legal tussle that got the elected chairman reinstated via an Exparte order of November 3rd, 2020.

However, a recent ruling by the Appeal Court sitting in Akure vacated the Exparte order of November 3rd 2020 that reinstated Adagunodo ._

Whereas, the trial Judge, Justice Jide Falola at the resumed sitting of the High court sitting in Ikirun, Osun State had _earlier_ converted the initial Exparte Order that reinstated Adagunodo to a Preservative Order on November 9th, 2020 in order. _According to the Judge this was done_ to avoid creating a leadership vacuum. The Preservative Order however still subsist because it was neither vacated nor appealed against by the Appellant at the Court of Appeal.

With the 2022 election around the corner, the party faithful and stakeholders have revealed that they would not condone any form of imposition and cautioned against careless comments which could spell doom for the party.