OSHIOMHOLE: APC mocks PDP

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to nullify the emergence of Adams Oshiomhole as the ruling party’s chairman.

The APC new national legal adviser, Babatunde Ogala, said that the call was done in ignorance, adding that the opposition party was merely chasing shadows with the demand.

Oshiomhole and and a number of other executive members of the APC had emerged unopposed during the party’s last Saturday national convention in Abuja.

But the PDP, through its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, had argued that the election of the APC national chairman and some others were not held in compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. It then asked INEC to annul the election.

But Ogala, who spoke to newsmen in Lagos on Thursday 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.

“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.

READ ALSO: PDP TO BUHARI: Show respect for the dead

“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’.

“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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