Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest against the outcome of the ward ad-hoc delegate congress in the state.
The ward ad-hoc delegates are to represent the state at the PDP presidential primary election scheduled to hold on May 29.
The protest was held after the National Working Committee of the PDP submitted the results of the congress held on April 30 in all the Local Government Areas in the state.
The protesters, who stormed the PDP secretariat in Abeokuta, alleged that the NWC only adopted delegates loyal to a governorship aspirant, Oladipupo Adebutu.
They displayed placards with various inscriptions such as ‘PDP is a party for all, not somebody’s lottery venture’, ‘Ogun PDP positions not for somebody with the questionable character’, ‘Ogun PDP is not an arm of Baba Ijebu’, ‘Iyorcha Ayu, save Ogun PDP from autocracy and dictatorship’, and ‘Election rigging is worse than armed robbery’ among others.
The leader of the protesters, Idris Olabode, alleged that the adopted delegates by the NWC were not present at the congress monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies.
He accused members of the State Working Committee of collaborating with the NWC of the party to disqualify popular delegates and adopt unpopular delegates.
Olabode, however, called on the leadership of the party to compel the NWC to reject the result of the congress.
He said, “On Saturday, elections were held in 20 Local Government Areas in Ogun State but the National Working Committee accepted the result of the local government whose chairmen are loyal to Oladipupo Adebutu and disregarded the remaining, that is the main point.
“Where the leadership of a party is unfair and unjust, it is very dangerous for the party. In any case, the National Working Committee is trying to disregard the result of the congress duly monitored by INEC and they are trying to forcefully announce the result of a small group of people who in any case did not hold any congress.
“If they hold a congress, let them provide video evidence but there is a group who held a congress monitored by INEC, DSS, the police, and the Civil Defense; there is pictorial and video evidence for this.
“But there is another group who never held any congress and the National Working Committee is now trying to disregard the result of the well-monitored congress and falsely announced the result of the other group who never had any evidence that elections were held.
“The State exco in the name of Sikirulahi Ogundele is doing very well, he has issued a letter to solve all these problems. But the State Working Committee is working in collaboration with the National Working Committee. In my opinion, they are doing the same thing.
“The State Working Committee is doing the same thing with the National Working Committee represented by Sunday Sholarin, not the state chairman of the party. The party-state Chairman was upright and very straightforward.
“We are clamoring for our mandate to be accepted. The result of the election held which was duly monitored by INEC must be accepted. Up till now, it has not been accepted and they have accepted others.
“Our result must be accepted and announced. Our candidate must be announced to the whole world across the 20 Local Government Areas. Our result should be accepted by the state and national working committees”.
