Osun PDP primary: Adeleke, Babayemi bicker over court ruling 

By Deborah Oladejo

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State may not end soon as Senator Ademola Adeleke and Prince Dotun Babayemi lay claims to the party’s governorship candidate.

It would be recalled that the party on March 8 held a parallel congress for the governorship primary election in the state.

Babayemi had earlier approached the court to declare the primary election conducted by the party as illegal due to the violation of a court order dated November, 2021.

However, the Osun State High Court sitting in IjebuJesa on Wednesday adjourned indefinitely the suit filed before it by one Ademola Adedokun and 31 others against the primary election conducted by the PDP which produced Senator Adeleke, as the governorship candidate of the party. 

Granting an application by Hashim Abioye Esq, who appeared for the applicants, dissociating themselves to the suit, the court observed that Abioye had filed and entered appeal for the applicants at the Court of Appeal, Akure marked CA/AK/38/2022 as such he adjourned the matter sine die.  

Responding to the court order, the Ademola Adeleke Campaign Organisation restated its earlier olive branch to fellow contenders for the governorship ticket of the party. 

“We urge all aggrieved party members to sheath their swords and join hands with Senator Adeleke to win the forthcoming elections,” it said.

The organisation also called on party members to revive the bond of brotherhood to face their common enemy, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The organisation, quoting Adeleke added: “We are not enemies; we are brothers. My ambition is the collective interest of all PDP members and the good people of Osun State. 

“We must as a family come together and regain the stolen mandate of 2018.” 

Meanwhile, a legal luminary, Mr. Edmund Biriomoni, said Prince Dotun Babayemi, remains the legally recognized flag bearer of the PDP for the July 16 governorship election.

Biriomoni, who is the counsel to Babayemi gave the clarification on the background of the sine die adjournment of the Osun State High Court sitting in Ijebu-Jesa presided over by Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe.

He said: “On March 3, 2022, the court granted an order recognising the Ward Executive Officers of the party that produced the 215 delegates. On March 10, again, the court declared through its Order of Mandatory Interim Injunction, that Babayemi was the legally recognised candidate of the party, having been elected by delegates backed by the law.”

Expatiating on the implications of Wednesday’s court position, Biriomoni maintained that Babayemi remains the party gubernatorial candidate because of the subsisting orders.

“The court orders of 3rd and 10th of March, 2022, are still subsisting, valid and binding on parties concerned. Dotun Babayemi still remains the candidate of the party.

“Yes, the implication is that the status quo remains; it means the court will go comatose till they finish from Court of Appeal. 

“They have shot themselves at the foot. It means that the status quo remains which implies that the two earlier court orders granted in favour of the plaintiffs are still subsisting.”

He added that the court did not set aside its earlier orders.

“It only stayed further proceedings and as of the time the court was staying further proceedings, what was the status quo? 

“The status quo was that two orders were granted on 3rd and 10th of March,2022, respectively.”

The counsel said procedurally, the Ademola Adeleke group had taken wrong steps, explaining that “there are ways to go in this kind of a route but unfortunately, they have gotten everything wrong and wasted their own time.”