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| Former Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala |
Former Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala has lost
his bid to assume the control of the executive committee of the state’s
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as a Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained
the party from sacking the existing exco of Oyo PDP.
Media reports say Justice Evoh Chukwu, in a
judgment in a suit by the Vice Chairman of Oyo PDP exco, Chief Solomon Oluwole
Ogunjimi, held that the exco, having been validly elected on March 17, 2012,
should not be dissolved until the expiration of its four -year tenure.
He petitioned the national chairman of the party
seeking the dissolution of the Hon. Yinka Taiwo led executives which they
accused of not living up to expectation.
Ogunjimi sued following a petition allegedly written
by some supporters of Akala, accusing the exco of incompetence and demanding
its dissolution by the party’s national body.
He alleged that the former governor, who is working to
return to office, has been critical of the Yinka Taiwo led Oyo PDP exco and was
working to ensure its dissolution with a view to assuming control of the party.
Part of the petition reads, “I want to urgently bring
to your attention the fact that the PDP exco in Oyo State elected on the 17th
of March, 2012, under the chairmanship of Hon Akeem Yinka Taiwo, is not living
up to expectation at all.”
The petition also accused the Exco of not carrying
elders and stakeholders of the party along and that it was creating divisions
inimical to the interest of the party ahead of the 2015 general elections and
called for the immediate dissolution of the exco and the inauguration of a
caretaker committee after due considerations with leaders of the party in the
state, including him.
The plaintiff, who named the PDP and INEC as
defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/106/2014, urged the court to restrain
Akala and his supporters from dissolving the state executive committee of the
party elected on the 17th of March, 2012.
He prayed the court to restrain the defendants from
recognizing any group other than the state executive committee elected at the
party’s state congress held on the 17th of March, 2012 in Ibadan, the state
capital before the expiration of the four -year term of the said state
executive committee.
In his judgment, a copy of which The Nation obtained
yesterday, Justice Chukwu granted the 12 reliefs sought by Ogunjimi. He
restrained the PDP and INEC from dissolving the Oyo State executive committee
elected on the 17th of March, 2012 at Ibadan before the expiration of its term
of four years.
The judge equally restrained the defendants from
recognizing any group other than the state executive committee elected at the
party’s state congress held on the 17th of March, 2012 in Ibadan, the state
capital before the expiration of the four- year term of the said state
executive committee.
Justice
Chukwu also restrained the defendants from conducting any primaries, congress,
convention etc, in Oyo State in respect of the State House of Assembly,
National Assembly and governorship elections in any venue except that
designated by the state executive committee of the PDP in the state which was
duly elected at the party’s state congress held on the 17th of March, 2012 in
Ibadan, the state capital, of which Chief Ogunjimi is the vice chairman, in
respect of the 2015 elections to be conducted by the Independent National
Election Commission, INEC, or any other electoral activity until the expiration
of tenure of office of the said state executive committee of the party in the
state.
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