•Makinde, Oyinlola, Oke, Alabi Rally Support for Suspended Chair
By Ismaeel Uthman
The suspension of Hon Soji Adagunodo as
the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) in the State of Osun has set the party leadership in the South-West and the state against each other.
OSUN DEFENDER gathered on Wednesday that Adagunodo’s suspension was generating ripples in the South-West zonal caucus of the PDP, as large number of the party leadership condemned and rejected the step taken by the National Working Committee.
According to sources from the PDP fold in Ibadan, Oyo State Governor, Engr Seyi Makinde and a Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Senator Olu Alabi, have registered their displeasure on Adagunodo’s suspension, describing it as ill-advised.
While Makinde has not made a statement on the matter, Alabia chieftain of the party in Osun, accused the zonal executive of the PDP of being the brain behind Adagunodo’s travail, saying that the embattled chairman had no question to answer, not to talk of punishment.
Alabi made the statement just as, the zonal leadership through a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Ayo Fadaka, said there were “lots of inadequacies” in the statement credited to Senator Alabi on the matter on the predicament of Adagunodo.
It warned that in as much as Senator Alabi, a BoT member had his fundamental rights to vent his opinions at anytime, such rights should be exercised without infringing on the rights of others.
“Conclusively, we also declare that the Zonal Executive has no hand in the current travails of Soji Adagunodo as it is only the national executive that has the constitutional rights to initiate and conclude disciplinary actions on anyone of his status in the party. We, therefore, call for patience and restraints on this score,” it stated.
OSUN DEFENDER learnt Adagunodo’s suspension might have also been instigated by some zonal leaders of the party who are supporting the Adeleke political dynasty.
It was gathered that the last straw that broke Adagunodo’scamel’s back was when he declared during a South-West PDP meeting held recently at Makinde’s residence in Ibadan that Osun was no more interested in retaining the Zonal Secretary position and agreed the position be given to someone from Lagos State.
A staunch supporter of the Adeleke camp, Reverend BunmiJenyo is the current PDP Zonal Secretary.
Adagunodo had been having a running battle with the Adelekecamp of the party.
The Adeleke camp believed that Adagunodo wanted Jenyo’souster from the party’s hierarchy because of where he belongs, and in return, launched the recent attack through petition to the PDP National Working Committee to remove the chairman.
The aftermath of the petition was the suspension of Adagunodo.
It would be recalled that the Adeleke camp had some months ago alleged Adagunodo of corruption, maladministration and anti-party activities; a move that compelled the PDP National Secretariat to set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the various allegations levelled against him.
When the committee, which comprised Senator Isah Misau, Senator Chris Anyanwu former Minister of Environment, Mrs. Lawrencia Laraba-Mallam investigated the whole allegations, they concluded in their report that Adagunodo was actually innocent of all allegations he was accused of.
However, OSUN DEFENDER gathered that some members of the National Executive Council of the PDP have waded into the matter, chiding the NWC for not carrying them along in the decision to suspend Adagunodo.
It was gathered that the NEC members have directed Makindeand former governor of Osun, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola to see into how Adagunodo’s suspension could be settled without resorting to court.
The medium learnt that the suspended Osun PDP chairman had concluded plan to file a suit in court to challenge his suspension before he was advised by Oyinlola to drop the plan.
Findings revealed that the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) in the State of Osun are solidly behind Adunagodo.
Reacting to Adagunodo’s suspension, Hon Oluwole Oke who is representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency of Osun in the House of Representatives, cautioned against any action or inaction capable of rocking the subsisting peaceful co-existence in the PDP.
Oke in a statement he personally signed and made available to OSUN DEFENDER on Wednesday said that nothing positive could be reaped from needless creation of confusion and acrimony within the party.
He said: “It is important for whoever that God puts in the position of authority to think about any likely negative effects of their actions on the numerous members of their party, well-wishers and supporters of their political leaning, who are hoping for the best from their end.
“The ongoing crack in the leadership of the PDP in the state portends a bad omen for the party in the nearest future, mostly on the aspirations of members of the party in the state at all levels from the position of a local government councillor to that of governorship.”
Former chairman of Ede-South Local Government, Elder Sunday Akanfe who was deputising Adagunodo has been appointed the Acting Chairman by the state National Working Committee of the party.
Announcing the appointment of Akanfe, after a meeting on Monday, the NWC said: “For the sake of emphasis, the SWC welcomes the choice of Elder Sunday Akanfe as most reasonable, having been elected alongside other members of the State Working Committee two years ago as the State Deputy Chairman.
“In the circumstances, we found ourselves; the State Deputy Chairman becomes the most constitutionally elected party official to act in place of the chairman, Hon Olasoji Adagunodo, who was asked to step aside from office by the NWC in lieu of the ongoing investigative procedures against him by statutory authorities of the party at the national level.”
The SWC maintained that contrary to insinuations and misinformation in some quarters, the emergence of Akanfe as acting chairman of the party in the state was the only thing that could have happened as natural law of succession in any democratic setting devoid of ugly manipulative infractions.
PDP leaders in Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency have rejected the suspension of Adagunodo, saying there was no iota of truth in the allegations against him and no justification for his suspension other than mere hatred act of ingratitude to him.
The leaders in a communique at the end of a meeting of PDP stakeholders in the federal constituency said: “We the PDP leaders, local government executives, Ward executives, all elected officials, the senator, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly members who were duly elected on the platform of our great party and are represented by their statutory aides in the two local governments of the entire Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency met to review the letter of suspension and thereafter unanimously reject the unholy and clandestine suspension of Hon. Soji Adagunodo as Osun PDP Chairman by the National Working Committee of the party.”
