There are strong indications that
President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, have begun fresh moves to seize
the control of the party in the South-West from former President
Olusegun Obasanjo.
Investigations on Tuesday also showed
that the moves were to ensure that Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola did not
return as the PDP National Secretary.
Oyinlola, a political protegee of
Obasanjo and former Osun State governor was on Monday directed to
step down by Tukur. The action was viewed by political observers as
part of the strategies by the President and his team to whittle down the
former President’s influence, especially in the South-West PDP.
Tukur, whose emergence as the PDP
national chairman was influenced by Jonathan, had named the Deputy
National Secretary, Chief Solomon Onwe, as acting National Secretary.
He had cited some sections of the party’s constitution to justify his
action.
Before Monday’s development, a Federal
High Court in Abuja had last Friday sacked Oyinlola while ruling on a
suit by a faction of the PDP in Ogun State. The faction had gone to the
court to challenge the emergence of the former governor as PDP national
secretary, claiming that he was foisted on the South-West PDP by
Obasanjo.
Sources close to the Presidency told one
of our correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday that Jonathan and Tukur were
not comfortable that the South-West PDP was being controlled by
Obasanjo and indirectly, by the governors.
One of the sources claimed that the PDP
regarded the South-West as strategic to its presidential primaries in
2015 and the general elections.
The South-West may not produce a
presidential candidate for the PDP in 2015 but block votes from the
zone could determine the eventual winner of the presidential election.
The PUNCH learnt that one of
the strategies being planned by the PDP leadership headed by Tukur
was to organise a fresh congress in the South-West to pick a
replacement for Oyinlola.
This plan is contained in the legal advice given to Tukur by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Joe Gadzama.
It was this same advice that Tukur used to order that Oyinlola be replaced by Onwe.
Investigations showed that the planned
congress might give anti-Obasanjo forces in the South-West the
advantage to produce the national secretary.
The PDP, in Ogun, Obasanjo’s home
state, is divided into two with the former President supporting the
Senator Dipo Odujurin- led executive, while a businessman, Chief Buruji
Kashamu is backing the Adebayo Dayo-led executive.
The Kashamu-led faction has been having a
series of legal battles with the Obasanjo-backed faction, which
culminated in the removal of Oyinlola.
Sunday PUNCH had on January 13
reported that Jonathan had taken the battle for the soul of the PDP to
Ogun State with the unfeterred access a former governor of the state,
Otunba Gbenga Daniel, had been having in the Presidency.
One of Daniel’s loyalists, Alhaja
Salimot Badru, was recently appointed by Jonathan as a member of the
Federal Capital Development Authority.
On Monday, The PUNCH reported a
source at the PDP meeting as saying that an ex-convict, Chief Bode
George, was nominated by Jonathan as a member of the Adamawa State
Reconciliation Committee.
Daniel and George are at loggerheads with Obasanjo.
Gadzama, in the memo to Tukur, said the
party must organise a fresh congress in the South-West within 21 days to
replace Oyinlola.
The memo reads in part, “The National
Working Committee of the PDP shall ensure, in accordance with the order
of the honourable court; that a valid congress of the South- West
chapter of the PDP is constituted within 21 days from January 11, 2013
to replace the 1st defendant with another candidate.”
It also said that since the court’s
judgment that sacked Oyinlola was a declaratory one, it was unlikely
that he would get a stay of execution order from the Court of Appeal.
Counsel to Oyinlola, Otunba Kunle
Kalejaye (SAN), had told The PUNCH in Ibadan, Oyo State on Monday, that
it was proper for his client to ask for stay of execution on his
sacking pending the determination of his appeal.
“I had been asked so many questions
about whether the judgment was declaratory and whether it could be
stayed. It is only a declaratory order that cannot be stayed. Even the
order removing him is not declaratory. It is a positive order of court,”
Kalejaye added.
Meanwhile, the PDP has said the removal of Oyinlola was not as a result of any personal animosity between him and Tukur.
The party, in an unsigned statement, said that his sacking was a result of court judgment that ousted him from office.
The statement said, “For the avoidance
of doubt, we want to say unequivocally that there is no personal rift
between Alhaji Tukur and Prince Oyinlola.
“In any event, reports have indicated
that Prince Oyinlola has appealed against the court judgment and the
NWC wants to say that as soon as the appeal is decided, the party will,
in the same way as it did in the case of the Federal High Court ruling,
obey the appeal decision.”
In Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, the
South-West PDP said it had nothing against the replacement of Oyinlola
as the national secretary of the party.
The National Vice- Chairman of the PDP
in the zone, Mr. Segun Oni, said on Tuesday that the replacement of
Oyinlola with Onwe, was in accordance with last Friday court judgment.
Oni, who spoke with one of our
correspondents through his media aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said that the
PDP in the South- West would only kick if Onwe was made a
substantive national secretary of the party.
He said, “His (Oyinlola) replacement is
in accordance with the court judgment which is declaratory. You can’t
bring someone who is not a member of the NWC to replace him that is why
his deputy was announced to replace him. When the secretary can’t
reform, his deputy takes over; this is not about ethnicity.
Gadzama’s memo to Tukur on Oyinlola
“Having carefully gone through the Order
in the judgment (of the FHC) in the above suit (against Oyinlola),
though we are yet to see a copy of the judgment itself, it is our
considered opinion that:
*the judgment is a valid decision of a
court of competent jurisdiction. *the judgment is binding on all the
parties to it most especially the defendants who are bound to comply
with same.
*Being a valid judgment, it is subsisting and enforceable against the parties thereto until it is set aside (if any) on appeal;
“All the defendants were duly represented in the suit by counsel before the Court arrived as its decision.
“Essentially, the judgment is
declaratory and a declaratory judgment cannot be stayed in the sense
that if there is an appeal against the judgment or an application to set
it aside, such an appeal or an application cannot be a reason to stay
the effects of the judgment.
“On the fact, of this case, it is plain
that this is a case which a stay of execution may not be granted in the
judgment which is enforceable against the appellant/applicant.
“In other words, there being no
judgment to execute the relief claimed in the present motion cannot be
one which this court can grant, the application, if I may say with
respect, therefore seems to me misconceived.”
“Consequent upon the above
circumstances, it is our considered legal opinion that: (a) The 1st
defendant (Prince Oyinlola) shall vacate his office as the National
Secretary of the PDP forthwith in compliance with the order of court.
“The 2nd defendant (the PDP) shall
ensure that the defendant vacates his office as the national secretary
of the PDP forthwith and should not do anything that runs contrary to
the order of the honourable court removing him as the national secretary
of the PDP or parades himself as such.
“The only part of the judgment of the
court which may constitute enough grounds for stay of execution are
contained in 4th and 5th Orders of the Court.
“In that case, there may be an order to
stay execution of the order of court in respect of the replacement of
the national secretary, of the party until the determination of any suit
or application before the trial court or the Court of Appeal (and the
Supreme Court as the case may be). It is only in such a situation that
an order of stay of execution is permissible in law.”
*Only a declaratory order cannot be stayed -Oyinlola’s lawyer
“We have since filed an appeal for stay of execution at the court.
“I had been asked so many questions
about whether the judgment was declaratory and whether it could be
stayed. It is only a declaratory order that cannot be stayed. Even the
order removing him is not declaratory. It is a positive order of court.
“The plaintiffs in that case asked for
five orders. The first one is a declaration that the candidacy of the
first defendant as a nominee of South-West zonal chapter is null.
“The second one is a declaration that
his candidacy and the subsequent election to the position of the
National Secretary is null and void.
“The third one is also a declaration
that the candidacy of the first defender to the position of National
Secretary and his subsequent election to that position is invalid.
Number four is an order removing the first defendant from office as the
national secretary. This is not declaratory. The other one is an order
of the court directing the Independent National Electoral Commission to
rectify the record.”
Kalejaye explained that orders four and five were not declaratory and, hence, could be stayed.
“We have filed our motion in this regard, “ he added.
PUNCH
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I de laff
ReplyDeleteLet things (PDP) fall apart! That is my earnest prayer as a faithful Nigerian
ReplyDeleteObasanjo nd godfatherism.Allow Goodluck to rest.You ruled in 1979 nd 1999,still u are nt satisfied.ur regime neva changed nija a bit.bhav lik an elder statesman
ReplyDeleteI dey laugh too.
ReplyDeleteI dey laugh too
ReplyDelete