No Oyinlola, No Tukur: PDP Govs React, As Court Sacks Party’s Scribe

The sacking of the secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, by the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Abdu Kafarati yesterday sparked a fresh row in the ruling party.
In the renewed power play between the governors elected under the PDP platform and the presidency over the leadership of the party, the state chief executive officers allegedly demanded that Oyinlola would only leave if the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, quits his office.
The presidency had waded into the crisis rocking the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP following the decision of 10 members of the NWC to rescind the dissolution of the Mijinyawa Kaugama-led Adamawa State chapter of the PDP without the consent of Alhaji Tukur, who had described the act as a betrayal of trust.
President Jonathan, in a bid to resolve the crisis, immediately summoned party bigwigs, governors and the NWC members to the Presidential Villa where a truce was broken and a vote of confidence passed on Tukur’s leadership of the party.
However, following the sack of Oyinlola, the PDP governors met last night and resolved to go back to their earlier stand that Alhaji Tukur must leave the party’s leadership. The meeting, according to a source, lasted over three hours.
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND learnt that the governors would meet with President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on the matter tomorrow.
A source who spoke to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND said the governors were shocked at the court ruling as it clearly contravened their plan for a peaceful resolution of the crisis which rocked the party during the week.
In the run-up to the March 2012national convention that threw up the party’s current leaders, Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State led other governors, especially from the north-east, to move against the candidacy of Tukur.
A last-minute deal made the governors throw up one of theirs – Olagunsoye Oyinlola (a former governor) — as secretary before they consented to a Tukur chairmanship on March 24, 2012, at the Eagle Square in Abuja. Oyinlola is said to be the “eye and voice” of the governors in the NWC of the party.
Some party chieftains are of the opinion that the pronouncement of Justice Kafarati might have sealed up the fate of both Tukur and Oyinlola.
Reports say despite the cosmetic pronouncement of the passage of a vote of confidence on the chairman of the party, there are underground scheming by PDP governors who insist that the chairman must go. The governors are said to be calling for an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting where they intend to mobilise members and party chairmen largely from their states to move a motion for the dissolution of the present NWC.
President Jonathan has allegedly kicked against the governors’ move, preferring rather to weed out NWC officials who are not loyal to Tukur.
There are insinuations that since the presidency kept mute and allowed two chieftains of the party to challenge Oyinlola’s election as national secretary without calling the chieftains to order, it may be a grand plot to rid the NWC of Oyinlola. Tukur is alleged to have confided in others that he could not work with him.
The governors, our source said, prefer outright dissolution of the PDP NWC and the constitution of a caretaker committee as an acceptable option.
Meanwhile, LEADERSHIP WEEKEND has learnt that the presidency might be preparing for a post-Tukur era and could tip former minister and diplomat Alhaji Hassan Adamu as a likely replacement for Tukur.
“They are expecting Tukur’s resignation anytime from now and, in order not to short-change Adamawa State, there is a consensus that Tukur’s successor should come from the state. It may interest you to know that our leaders are already looking in the direction of Wakili Adamawa, Dr. Hassan Adamu, as likely successor to Tukur,” the source said.
This is just as President Jonathan has warned all the power players in Adamawa State that the party would not allow any of the power brokers in the state to enthrone their protege, a factor believed to be the underling conflict in Adamawa State ahead of 2015. There are reports that Nyako, Tukur and Atiku Abubakar are all battling to bring their wards into the mainstream politics of the state, hence the damning battle of wits being witnessed in the state.
Jonathan was said to have sounded the warning recently in one of the meetings held at the Presidential Villa with the stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday sacked the national secretary of the ruling PDP, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola from Office.
Justice AKafarati also upheld the plaintiff’s relief asking the court to commit Oyinlola to prison for criminal contempt of a subsisting court order that nullified the south-west zonal congress of the PDP it conducted in March 2012.
The Ogun State chapter of the party had, through its chairman Engr. Adebayo Dayo and secretary Alhaji Seminu Sodipo, instituted a suit challenging the nomination of Oyinlola by the south-west caucus on the grounds that two court judgments had nullified the south-west zonal congress through which he was nominated.
The plaintiff named Oyinlola, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as co-defendants.
Justice Kafarati held that the action of the PDP and Oyinlola amounted to criminal conduct and liable to be committed to prison for flagrant disobedience to two court orders.
He further held that Oyinlola is not worthy to be recognised as the national secretary of the party and should vacate the office.
The judge also held that Oyinlola could not have emerged as the nominee of the PDP in view of the two court judgements which nullified the congress, adding that an order court must be obeyed whether valid or not.
He also stated that “the conduct of the defendants constitute flagrant disobedience to a subsisting court order and also constitute a criminal contempt of court and any step taken thereafter by the PDP secretary is null and void”.
Justice Kafarati therefore dismissed the preliminary objection brought by the defendants, saying “all the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs are hereby granted”.
Plaintiff’s relief 5 sought ‘’an order committing the 3rd defendant (Oyinlola) to prison for such period as the court may see fit in the circumstances of his commission of criminal contempt consisting of three letters written by Oyinlola threatening the plaintiff for commencing the suit and the other two which were in a bid to over-rule an order of the federal high court that are in wilful interference with the administration of justice and subversion of the judicial process,’’ Kafarati’s judgement read.
Although the court did not make any specific order as to his committal but the lawyer to the plaintiff, Dr. Amaechi Nwiwu (SAN), said that his client could approach the court for consequential order after receiving the enrol order.
‘’It all depends if my client wants to ask for a definite order to commit Oyinlola to prison for criminal contempt of the court, but the court granted our relief seeking to commit him to prison,’’ Nwiwu said.
Reacting to the judgement, Oyinlola, who was appearing in court after his call to Bar recently, told journalists after the session that the judgment would be appealed, adding that it was a miscarriage of justice.
The plaintiff had earlier argued that following the zoning of the office of PDP National secretary to the south-west, Oyinlola was imposed as the candidate for the position by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the then national vice chairman (south-west), Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo.