BY OLA AJAYI
THE aggrieved chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who are opposed to Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala’s re-election have asked a Federal High Court in Ibadan to stop the governorship primaries of the party in Oyo State.

Those joined in the suit include the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  PDP,  its  National Chairman, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo and the State Chairman of the party, Mr. Dejo Afolabi.

Elder Wole Oyelese, one of the governorship aspirants said he prayed the court to stop INEC and PDP from giving any recognition to the candidature of Akala as the party’s flag bearer if the congress holds as scheduled.

Akala dismisses suit as exercise in futility

But governor Akala, speaking through Prince Dotun Oyelade, his  Special Adviser to the governor on Public Communications,  said even injunction is given, it would be  an exercise in futility because the primaries would go on as scheduled.

He accused Elder Oyelese and his alleged collaborators of “irresponsible grandstanding” irrespective of the havoc such tension may cause on the polity.

He urged all the 1,300 delegates to report at the  venue of the governorship primaries on schedule so that National delegates could head for Abuja on time for the Presidential primaries on Thursday.

Akala called on all delegates to feel free to vote for the candidates of their choice who would fly the flag of the party in the April election.

Dissatisfied with the alleged partisanship of the National Working Committee of the PDP, Oyelese arrived the court at the early hours of yesterday with a team of lawyers to file and begin a court process that seeking to stop the congress being planned by the Dejo Afolabi-led State Executive.

Oyelese said he took the legal option to declare the ‘the kangaroo congress done at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium by Akala’s faction without the presence of the INEC officials and party’s representatives from Abuja a nullity.”

As far as he was concerned, the fresh congresses directed by the party’s NWC was inconclusive and that it was a blunder on their part to have recognized such an illegal congress.

He argued that the congress was not held as a party but as a faction, adding that Governor Alao-Akala was the one that monitored the election because all the official umpires were not in attendance.