Osun PDP chairman rejects removal claims, says party endorses Adeleke

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo –

The Osun State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Sunday Bisi, has declared that he remains the duly elected chairman of the party in the state, dismissing claims of his removal by a group he described as a “so-called stakeholders’ forum.”

Meanwhile, he revealed that the party has endorsed Governor Ademola Adeleke for re-election, stating that the PDP currently has no other candidate for the forthcoming August governorship election.

Bisi, in a statement signed on Thursday in response to a meeting held by the group, said the forum lacks the legal authority or mandate to remove an elected chairman with a subsisting tenure. He stressed that an illegal assembly cannot tamper with the party’s recognised structures.

The PDP chairman described the move as null and void, insisting that the mainstream leadership of the party across all local governments and wards remains intact and supportive of his leadership.

According to him, “I remain the chairman, and as the PDP has no candidate for the August election, the party has endorsed Governor Ademola Adeleke for re-election. That is the fact of the situation, as the public is aware of the leadership crisis within the PDP.

“Our elected officials, excluding the governor and deputy governor, remain in the PDP. Our party has no candidate, and we have accordingly endorsed Governor Adeleke. Anybody saying otherwise belongs to the small group who did not vote for Governor Adeleke during the 2022 governorship polls.”

Bisi described a statement credited to former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola as an open betrayal and a continuation of what he called a failed 2022 plot aimed at stopping Adeleke’s candidacy.

He added that the division within the PDP threatened the governor’s candidacy, prompting him to seek a platform for re-election, noting that Oyinlola was the first to suggest the move.