Osun PDP defies national headquarters

On Wednesday, November 11, Peter Babalola, the chief of staff to Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State, seemed to ignore the directive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national headquarters by declaring his intention to vie for the governorship ticket of the state.

Mr. Babalola, in a carnival-like atmosphere at the Osogbo township stadium replete with musicians like Yinka Ayefele, Musiliu Haruna-Ishola and his supporters said that if voted into office, his policies would simply be a continuation of Mr. Oyinlola's government.

Mr. Babalola described the 2011 election as a battle that must be won to save the Osun people from poverty. "The vision is to win not just the electoral battles ahead but more importantly, to win the war against poverty for our people," he said.

But this step was clearly against the directive of Rufai Alkali, the PDP national publicity secretary, who said on November 3 that the Osun state branch of the party should stop selling nomination forms which cost N3 million, while the ones sold earlier were declared illegal.

Mr. Alkali said this was because the state executives were under investigation and consequently their actions were illegal. "The party is not aware of any state selling governorship nomination forms. However, we are investigating and we are asking those who have collected such forms in Osun State to go and collect back their money," Mr. Alkali said.

The process is on

The Public Relation Officer of the Osun PDP, Adeolu Adeyemo, however said in a telephone interview that about 19 aspirants have so far declared their intention to contest the governorship election by obtaining the expression of interest forms.

Mr. Adeyemo also confirmed that the processes culminating in the 2011 elections in PDP in the state are ongoing.

"We have started the process, the earlier the better," Mr. Adeyemo said. He denied the directive issued by the national executive committee of the party. "The issue was not like that. Were you there? What did he say? If there was anything like that we would have been contacted," he said.

However, as at press time, it was gathered that the state chapter was yet to return the monies collected from the governorship aspirants, 16 at the last count.

Other aspirants in the governorship race are Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister; Fatai Akinbade, current secretary to the state government; Olusola Obada, present deputy governor; Tunde Odanye, a lawyer; Diran Odeyemi, an aide of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and Remi Olowu, former director general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Whatever permutation in the PDP notwithstanding, the Osun governorship is still subject to the determination of the reconstituted election tribunal currently hearing the petition of the Action Congress candidate in the 2007 governorship election, Rauf Aregbesola, who is challenging the election of Mr. Oyinlola.