By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Ogun State, Jimi Lawal, has asked the Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led national working committee (NWC) to cancel the party’s governorship primaries in the state to avoid litigation.
Lawal, an associate of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, said this in a letter of complaint, signed on his behalf by the law office of Frank Tietie, Esq.
The London-trained banker alleged that the delegates list used for the governorship primary election was fake.
He threatened litigation if the party fails to investigate the allegation, cancel the primary and order for another one, having discovered that the delegates list used at the primary was not the authentic one.
The party held its governorship primary, which produced a former member of the House of Representatives, Oladipupo Adebutu, as the party’s candidate, last Thursday.
A parallel primary of the party held same day produced Segun Showunmi, making the party to have two governorship candidates.
The third aspirant, Lawal, who participated in the primary that produced Adebutu stormed out shortly after the commencement of the exercise, following the controversies that trailed the delegates list to be used for the exercise.
In the letter sighed by Newspeakonline, Lawal claimed that the authentic list was manipulated to contain names of people that were not elected at the ward congress.
According to him, the development led to the existence of two lists, one that is authentic and containing the names of the elected delegates and the fake list .
“We are a firm of solicitors and barristers whose services have been retained by Otunba Jimi Adebisi Lawal (JAL), a governorship aspirant of the Peoples 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 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 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,” the petition read.
Lawal asked the party’s leadership to compare the two lists and do the needful to ensure transparency and credibility of the primaries of the PDP in the state.
