A governorship aspirant on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party in Ogun State, Otunba Jimi Lawal has called on the national leadership of the party to cancel the party governorship primary in the state and organize another primary election to chose its flag bearer.
He claimed that the authentic list of the party delegates was manipulated to contain names of people that were not elected at the State Ward congress.
Lawal, however threatened legal action if the party fails to investigate the allegation, cancel the primary and order for another one, pointing out that the delegates list used at the primary was fake.
The governorship aspirant, who wrote a letter of complaint titled “Complaint of manipulation of Ogun State PDP delegates list in the Ogun State Governorship primaries” alleged that the delegates list used was fake .
It would be recalled that the party held its governorship primary in the state on Thursday and produced a former member of the House of Representatives from Remo Federal Constituency, Oladipupo Adebutu as the candidate.
A parallel primary of the party held the same day produced a governorship aspirant, Segun Showunmi, making the party to have two candidates .
Lawal who took part in the primary that produced Adebutu left the venue of the party primary shortly after the commencement of the exercise over the controversies on the delegate list to be used .
In the letter written through his lawyers from the law office of Frank Tietie, Esq , Lawal argued that the authentic list was manipulated to contain names of people that were not elected at the State Ward congress.
The petition read “We are a firm of solicitors and barristers whose services have been retained by Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal (JAL), a governorship aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State and hereby raise the alarm on the use of a fake delegates’ list in the conduct of the May 25th governorship primaries elections of the PDP in the state.”
“This use of the fake and manipulated delegates’ list was first observed during the just concluded primaries which were held on the 21st of May 2022 to elect the party’s candidates for the State House of Assembly elections. Thus, the authentic list was manipulated to include new and unfounded names that were not elected at the State ward congress, thereby giving rise to two lists- one that is authentic and containing the truly and correctly elected delegates as against the other list that was manipulated and ralied upon by the national officials of the party that conducted the primaries elections in the state.
“The concern therefore is that the said fake list was used in the just concluded governorship primaries which mars the whole exercise, makes it illegitimate and would be subjected to litigation if the national leadership of the party does not immediately investigate and confirm the irregularity and, nullify it.
In his request , Lawal asked the party leadership to compare the two lists and do the needful to ensure transparency and credibility of the primaries of the PDP in the state.
The petitioner wrote “therefore, we hereby apply that the two lists hitherto attached to this letter be compared with the original results of the PDP ward congress of Ogun State which held on Saturday, 30th April, 2022 and was observed and reported by INEC as, this is the only way to ensure transparency, credibility and safeguard the integrity of the primaries of the PDP in Ogun State.
“Further to the above, we expect the position of the party to immediately confirm the authenticity of the delegates’ list used for the primaries election and where it has been found to be fake, to immediately cancel and nullify the just concluded primaries.”
