Fresh details have emerged over the leadership crisis rocking the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as rival voices within the party publicly restated their positions on its structure and political direction ahead of the forthcoming governorship election.
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At the centre of the dispute is the status of the state chairman, Sunday Bisi, who has rejected claims that he has been removed from office.
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Bisi described the action of a stakeholders' forum which announced his purported removal as unconstitutional and without effect.
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Addressing journalists in Osogbo on Thursday, Bisi maintained that he remains the duly elected chairman of the party in the state and that his tenure remains valid.
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"The forum lacks legal powers or mandate to remove or tamper with the elected structures of the party. I remain the chairman," he said.
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He argued that only properly constituted organs of the party, acting within the framework of its constitution, could take decisions affecting elected officials.
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Bisi disclosed that the PDP in Osun had not fielded a candidate for the August governorship election and had instead endorsed Governor Ademola Adeleke for re-election.
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"As the PDP has no candidate for the August gubernatorial election, the party has endorsed Governor Ademola Adeleke for re-election. That is the fact of the situation," he stated.
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While acknowledging tensions within the party, Bisi said most elected officials in the state remained members of the PDP.
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"Our elected officials minus the governor and the deputy governor remain in PDP. Our party has no candidate and we have accordingly endorsed Governor Adeleke," he added.
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The chairman also responded to remarks attributed to former governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, describing them as inconsistent with the position of what he termed the mainstream structure of the party in Osun.
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"The statement credited to former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola is an open betrayal and a continuation of a failed 2022 plot to stop Governor Adeleke," Bisi said.
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He explained that internal divisions at the national level of the PDP had created uncertainties around the governor's political future, prompting certain strategic decisions.
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"The division within the PDP national leadership threatened the candidacy of our governor. The right thing was done by the governor to seek a platform for re-election. Prince Oyinlola was even the first to make this suggestion," he said.
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Bisi insisted that the core leadership and membership base of the party in Osun remained aligned with the current state executive and its decisions.
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"The mainstream of Osun PDP stands by the governor, by our leadership and by our elected mandate as state officers which cannot be truncated by any unelected, illegal and unauthorised group," he stated.
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Earlier at a separate stakeholders' meeting held in Osogbo, Prince Oyinlola had maintained that the PDP remained a viable political force in the state despite the reported defection of Governor Adeleke to the Accord Party.
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According to him, the meeting was convened to clarify developments within the party at both national and state levels.
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"There have been some confusing narratives being pushed out about the status of PDP, especially in Osun State, and what we have done today is to narrate situations as they are to our members, so that the entire wards and local governments in Osun will know exactly where PDP stands today in Osun State," Oyinlola said.
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Responding to suggestions that the PDP structure in the state had been collapsed into the Accord Party to facilitate Adeleke's re-election, Oyinlola dismissed the claim.
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"PDP is a party that has its tentacles in all the nooks and crannies of this country. It is not in our own time that we will allow it to die," he said.
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He added that the party remained open to future developments, stating: "We are holding on to PDP. If tomorrow, our governor decides to come back and be with his family in PDP, he is most welcome, but for now, PDP is standing in Osun State strongly."
