The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari, immediately after the rerun of the 2018 Osun gubernatorial election had stated that the All Progressives Congress (APC) victory was remote controlled.
Also, the party is still maintaining that their candidate in the election, Senator Ademola Adeleke was the winner of the 2018 gubernatorial election in the state before the introduction of the inconclusive clause and rerun was done.
The PDP Chairman, Sunday Bisi made this known to DAILY POST while defending their adoption of Ademola Adeleke as a candidate of the party for the 2022 Osun State gubernatorial election.
The Chairman stated that Senator Ademola Adeleke has indicated interest in running again come 2022 and any candidate is free to come out and contest the state PDP primary election with him because the party has provided a level playing field for all candidates.
He revealed that Adeleke is not the sole candidate of the party, adding that in 2018, the state executives under Olasoji Adagunodo had also adopted Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi as their candidate but he ended up being defeated.
In his words, “Senator Ademola Adeleke is not the sole of the Osun PDP for the 2022 election in Osun. Any other candidate is free to contest the primary election where delegates will elect the candidate of their choice.
“We don’t have any option than to put him forward again. In 2018, he wasn’t the candidate of the state executives but he ended up being the flag bearer of the party.
“We are in a democracy. Senator Adeleke has indicated interest in contesting the state PDP primaries in 2022.
While revealing that there was no faction in the Osun PDP, Sunday Bisi maintained that the relationship among him, his predecessor, Adeleke and Ogunbiyi is cordial and the work of the peace and reconciliation committee of the party headed by Dr. Bukola Saraki was ongoing.
According to him, “we have reached a level where the lingering crisis in the Osun PDP will be over. They are doing their best to ensure the crisis is finally resolved.
“We don’t have any faction or groups within the PDP. We have the party executives in the state, local government and ward levels. We are not aware of any groups.
He explained that Olasoji Adagunodo despite being his friend appealing the judgment of the Appeal Court sitting in Akure, was a matter of the law and testing of popularity.
“I am not stopping anybody. There is an ongoing peace process. It is a party matter. We have to explore all internal mechanism of crisis resolution within the party before we take the party to court.”
