The Osun State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has continued to endure an internal crisis that appears to be getting messier by the day with litigations and counter suit from the two factions that made the party.
The crisis, which was responsible for the emergence of two flagbearers for the July 16, 2022 poll in the state at a governorship primary election held last week, has been further greeted with legal actions with one camp challenging the legal standing of the other.
Edmund Biriomoni counsel to one of the two candidates that emerged during the last governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun state, Prince Dotun Babayemi, on Wednesday said his client was the valid candidate of the party in the governorship poll.
Biriomoni in a statement obtained in Osogbo said an Osun State High Court sitting in Ijebu-Jesa, presided over by Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe, in a case between Ademola Adedokun and 29 others against the PDP and INEC had adjourned the matter indefinitely citing, the existence of a matter currently at the Court of Appeal.
The statement reads in part, “On the 3rd of March, 2022, the Court granted an order recognising the Ward Executive Officers of the party that produced the 215 delegates. On the 10th of March again, the Court declared through its Order of Mandatory Interim Injunction, that Babayemi was the legally recognised candidate of the party, having been elected by delegates backed by the law.
“However, in its sitting today, Wednesday, the court adjourned sine die due to the appeal currently at the Court of Appeal.”
According to him, the court’s position implied that Babayemi remained the party gubernatorial candidate because of the subsisting orders.
“The Court orders of 3rd and 10th of March, 2022, are still subsisting, valid and binding on parties concerned. Omo Oba Dotun Babayemi remains the candidate of the party.
“Yes, the implication is that the status quo remains; it means the court will go comatose till they finish from the Court of Appeal. They have shot themselves in the foot. It means that the status quo remains which implies that the two earlier court orders granted in favour of the plaintiffs are still subsisting,” Biriomoni said.
But reacting in another statement, a faction in the Osun State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party supporting Senator Ademola Adeleke, warned against disinformation, stating that ex-parte orders last only for seven days.
The Publicity Secretary of the party, Ayodeji Areola, in his statement added that the legal brick wall on the Osun PDP ticket had been resolved in favour of Adeleke.
He said, “We are not unaware of the misinformation being circulated by a tiny minority within Osun PDP supported by the APC agents that the order of interim injunction made by Aderibigbe operates indefinitely. That is far from the truth as that position will be preposterous and against logic, law and reason.
“An ex-parte order has a seven-day life span and unless expressly extended, it automatically vanishes after the 7-day period. In the case of PDP .V. ADAGUNODO in CA/AK/349/2020, the Court of Appeal had this to say on the life span of an ex-parte order.
“Interim orders have a life span and automatically expire by effluxion of time, in this case, seven days, unless renewed by another seven days as situation and circumstances permit. The clear implication of the above-cited rules of court is that an order made ex-parte shall automatically abate after seven days.
“The implication of the above position is that there is no court order disturbing our candidate any longer.”
