•I Still Remain national secretary - PROF OLADIPO •Amaechi Free to go APC~ JONATHAN THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as been thrown into another round of crisis, as the Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Wednesday, reversed the sack of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Oyinlola, it will be recalled, is one of the arrowheads of the New PDP, a splinter group of the party calling for the removal of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as its chairman. Some members of the New PDP, including the G7 governors, of recent, were being lured into the All Progressives Congress (APC). It will be recalled that Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had sacked Oyinlola from office, based on a suit filed by the Ogun State chapter of the party. Not satisfied, Oyinlola had approached the Court of Appeal to challenge the said judgment. Delivering judgment in the appeal, Justice J.T. Tor noted that there were two appeals before the court, while he held that the lower court was wrong to have given a declaratory judgment against a person that was not a party in the suit that led to such judgment. The court further held that the respondents could not rely on the case cited as there was a clear distinction between the cases, adding that in the case cited, the appellant was a party at the lower court. The court, therefore, invoked Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act and held that the lower court had infringed on the fundamental human rights of the appellant to a fair hearing. Reacting, counsel for the respondents, Ajibola Oluyede said the judgment would be challenged at the Supreme Court. He added that the judgment was totally at variance with the evidence before the court. The Ogun State chapter of the party had, through its chairman, Adebayo Dayo, instituted the suit challenging Oyinlola’s nomination by the South-West zone of the party on the ground that there were two orders which nullified the zonal congress. The plaintiff had told the court that Oyinlola was imposed as the candidate for the position by former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and former national vice chairman of the party, Tajudeen Oladipo. They asked the court to declare Oyinlola’s continuous stay in the office as illegal, null and void and equally asked the court to compel the INEC to conduct a fresh zonal congress in the zone. While reacting to the judgment, the PDP said it would study it and take position in due course. Speaking in a chat with newsmen, the national legal adviser of the party, Mr Victor Kwom, said only after a full study of the judgment would the party make a pronouncement . When contacted, Professor Wale Oladipo, who replaced Oyinlola as the party’s national secretary, said “the deponents from Ogun State, who took him (Oyinlola) to court in the first place, I believe, are now in the process of going to the Supreme Court. “As to my position, nothing has changed. I remain the national secretary of the party. The Supreme Court will have the final say. So, no cause for alarm,” he said. Presidency stops S/West congress Again, the South-West zonal congress of PDP, fixed for Saturday in Ibadan,Oyo State capital, has been reportedly stopped on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan. An informed source in the presidency told the PDP News in confidence on Wednesday that the action was sequel to protests to President Jonathan by some aggrieved party leaders from the zone, over the proposed zonal congress, despite pending litigation over the matter in courts of competent jurisdictions. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party had, at its last meeting, suspended the conduct of the zonal congress, pending when all subsisting court cases would be disposed off. The National Working Committee (NWC), at one of its weekly meeting last month, however, fixed November 9 for the congress. It was gathered that the decision did not go down well with some leaders of the party in the zone, as some of them perceived it as a short cut for a faction of the party to take over the structures of the party at the zonal level. The source said “while Alhaji Tukur went to the Presidential Villa to brief the president on the decision of the NWC to hold the congress this Saturday, the aggrieved party leaders got the winds of the moves and quickly swung into action to counter it. The moves eventually paid off, as the president was said to have advised Alhaji Tukur to shelve it for now.” Though the national publicity secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, could not be easily reached for confirmation, a source in the office of the national chairman, who confirmed the development, told the PDP News in confidence that the action to stop the congress was taken in the overall interest of the party. Amaechi free to go - Presidency The presidency has said Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is free to leave the PDP for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) if he so desires. Reacting to a statement credited to Governor Amaechi that he would consult President Jonathan before joining the APC, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr Ahmed Gulak, said the governor was only trivialising the issues at stake, as he deliberately engaged in anti-party activities. He said since Amaechi did not consult the president before inviting the APC leaders and giving them tumultuous reception in his state, he should not bother to consult President Jonathan before leaving. “Governor Amaechi did not consult the president before inviting APC leaders to Rivers and giving them a rousing welcome. So, he does not need to consult the president before joining APC, because he knows that the president will not allow any PDP member to go to APC,” he said. APC: Kano commissioner resigns Fresh crisis appears to have hit the camp of Kano State governor, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, on Wednesday, following the resignation of his Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Iya Farouk. Farouk turned in his resignation letter on November 1, following his rejection of plans by Kwakwanso and other aggrieved members of PDP to join APC. Sources in Kano told the PDP Daily News that the commissioner had served as the director-general of the Kwakwanso campaign organisation in the 2011 election. A source said the commissioner had rejected the bid to join APC, insisting that “I can’t join APC.” He was also said to have declared his readiness to team up with the original PDP in the state. Meanwhile, Governor Kwankwaso, it was gathered, has sent in the name of Alhaji Tajudeen Gambo to the state House of Assembly for confirmation as commissioner. Speaker of the state assembly, Honourable Gambo Sallau, announced this during the sitting of the assembly, on Wednesday. Another source, however, said no commissioner resigned his appointment from Kwankwaso’s cabinet
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 07:04:11 +0000
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