Ogun State PDP in another round of crises over repeat primaries

• Party suspended Lawal, Odunmosun others for illegal primaries• My suspension a charade, says Lawal

There appears to be no end in sight to the crisis engulfing the Ogun State branch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), following the suspension of one gubernatorial hopeful Otunba Jimi Lawal for allegedly organizing and participating in an illegal gubernatorial primary election.

The Ogun East-born politician and ally of Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State, who defected to the PDP in February this year to contest the gubernatorial primary, was suspended on Monday along with four others ; Bola Odunmosun, the party financial secretary, Fasiu Ajadi, Kola Akinyemi and Tope Asiru, the party chairman of Ijebu Northeast Local Government Area of ​​the state.

Following a Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta that overturned the party's primary election, which produced Mr Ladi Adebutu in the state, Lawal and others had held another primary on Monday, October 16, after the expiry of the 14-day pardon granted to the party to hold another replay primary.

Presiding Judge, Justice O.O. Oguntoyinbo in his judgment ordered the party to hold new primaries within 14 days.

The ruling also prevented the national body of the PDP from holding or organizing the rerun of the primaries, instead ordering the state executive to deal with it.

The court also barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing Adebutu as the party's gubernatorial candidate in the state.

Ladi Adebutu

But the content of the Federal High Court judgment is not well received by the National Works Committee (NWC) and the state executive branch headed by Mr. Sikirulahi Ogundele.

Ogundele had told The Guardian on Saturday that the party would appeal the judgment on the grounds that although the PDP had no problem with the cancellation of previous primaries and directives to stage a rerun, the bone of contention, according to him, is the aspect, which says that the executive of the state should be the one who organizes new primaries.

According to Ogundele, "The judgment was contrary to the PDP Constitution, which empowers the national body and not the state executive to hold primaries, especially the gubernatorial primary."

He further noted that if the state executive decided to hold the primaries as directed by the Federal High Court, the outcome of such an exercise would be subject to further litigation as some people would head to the court to say that the state executive has no such constitutional power, under party rule and the Elections Act of 2022, to hold primaries.

"That's what we're trying to avoid, which caused a delay before the 14 day guidelines expired. But that doesn't mean it's all over as we still have plenty of time by electoral law of 2022 to solve the problem,” he said, revealing that the party’s NWC had appealed the judgement.

But after the 14-day ultimatum expired, Jimi Lawal's faction held a gubernatorial primary on Monday in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The Guardian has learned that Lawal and his traveling companions have decided to hold court-ordered primaries across the state. While the new gubernatorial election was held at the DLK Event Center, the National Assembly and State House of Assembly primaries were held in the various constituencies.

At the end of the new gubernatorial race, Lawal became the gubernatorial candidate with 456 votes. Announcing the results, the Secretary of State for Finance, the Hon. Bola Odumosu, who led other members of the state Executive Committee to lead the court-ordered resumption, said a total of 463 delegates were accredited to vote.

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