The newly-elected National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Babatunde Ogala, has replied the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to void the election of the new APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
DAILY POST reports that the PDP had called on INEC to annul the recent election of Oshiomhole, as the APC national chairman, claiming that it was not held in compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
Speaking during a courtesy visit by a delegation from his Kabba Bunu community in Kogi State, the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, had said: “We want to recall that in 2012, we had a convention which INEC declared a nullity because they said we did not follow the rules.”
Reacting however, the ruling party said the opposition PDP was only chasing shadows.
Speaking in a chat with journalists on Thursday in Lagos, Ogala noted that the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ologbodiyan, who made the statement, betrayed his ignorance of the law.
Ogala said: “In responding to Mr. Ologbodiyan, I will take cognizance of his lack of knowledge of law and say he could therefore only have uttered those words attributed to him out of ignorance of the provisions of APC Constitution. I am also not unaware of the fact that Mr. Ologbodiyan, having not been present at the venue of our convention, could only have uttered his words based on hearsay and gossips”.
He added: “The import of the extant provision of Article 20 of the APC Constitution was obviously not known to Mr. Ologbodiyan and his party PDP.
“As Mr. Ologbodiyan and his PDP were not present at our Convention, they are busy-bodies who could not have known that the election of the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and 21 other officers that were elected unopposed all had the attendant overwhelming ‘YES’ Votes at the National Convention at Eagle Square and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a compliant observer of the convention. Mr. Ologbondiyan was fishing in uncharted and murky dark waters and now needs help.
“Honourable Justice Nnaemeka Agu of the Court of Appeal in the case of:- Rufus Faloyinbo –Vs- IbidapoAwojolu & Anor (1979) LPELR – FCA/3/56/78 held as follows:- “It is the law that in a case where there is no opposition, the date on which the candidate is returned unopposed is the date of his election”.
“We do not coerce our Chairmen and Officers out of office through brute force. Neither do we impose leaders through inducement or shove them forcefully down the throats of our members. That is the difference between us just like the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said at our convention that ‘we are progressive. They are backward. They are despotic, we are democratic’.
“For the avoidance of doubts, those candidates who stepped down their ambitions to allow others elected unopposed, were clearly motivated by the larger interest of the party and sustenance and deepening of our democratic process. We salute those persons as the heroes of our party.
“It is the success of our convention, obviously, that makes the PDP uneasy and fidgety to start chasing shadows and winking in the dark. May they continue their shadow-chasing.”
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