- No, there was no Parallel congress - Caretaker committee

- We have submitted our parallel result to electoral commitee, INEC - Jimi Lawal group 

 

The last might not have been heard of the internal wrangling in the People's Democratic Party, PDP, Ogun State, as the party reportedly conducted parallel Wards Congress on Saturday, HorizonTimes gathered.

Although the primaries were largely peaceful across the venues, the two warring groups conducted parallel congresses at the same venues in the 236 wards of the state.

It was gathered that the two factions have submitted their congresses reports to the Hon Solomon Maren led Ward Congresses Electoral Committee.

The two factions include that of the main financier of the party and the governorship candidate of the Party in the last election, Hon Ladi Adebutu, and the other led by Jimi Lawal, Hon Adekunle Akinlade, Sikirullahi Ogundele, Dimeji Fabiyi, amongst others.

While the Ladi Adebutu group maintained that there was no parallel congress, Lawal’s group claimed to have submitted their congress results to the electoral committee and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

HorizonTimes gathered that trouble started during the membership registration exercise earlier in the year, then with the Caretaker Committee and later the Electoral Committee which were alleged to have taken side with the Adebutu faction, instead of bringing all the groups together.

Apart from being housed by Adebutu at his father's hotel in Abeokuta, the Jimi Lawal group alleged that every activities of the committees were done 'to frustrate other stakeholders.'

"Everything was done to clear the road for Ladi who has become their benefactor at some point," a source alleged.

It was further gathered that the National Working Committee of the Party sold nomination forms separately to the two factions, paving the way for the parallel congresses.

It was also gathered that during the membership registration exercise of party earlier in the year, the two factions compiled and maintained different membership registers for the party in the State.

While the Lawal group had taken its register to Abuja for endorsement, Adebutu’s group maintained that party registers, according to the constitution, are kept at the wards secretariat.

It was further gathered that the state Caretaker Committee headed by Dada Awoleye, had demanded that the two groups submit their forms to the committee, the demand which the Lawal group rejected.

According to another source, it was the decision of the NWC that all card carrying members of the party are qualified to aspire for any position once there's evidence of payment for the nomination form.

After submitting the copies of the nomination forms to the committee, another trouble started as the Lawal group were accused of not submitting the forms seven days to the congress. The position which the group also said was alien to the party's constitution and guideline for the congresses.

"What we did was to collate the forms and take them to Abuja, but Abuja even said that once they have receipts and evidence of payment, hold your form, take it to the congress venue, hold it and people queue behind you and that is what we did.

"The Committee said we should submit the forms and we said 'No', we know your biases and we can't submit forms to you, rather, we will give you duplicates. This is about 5,000 forms of about 7 pages each, and we took the forms to them.

"They again said we didn't submit the forms 7 days to the congress and therefore they were rejecting our forms.

"We told them there's no provisions in the party's constitution or the guidelines that empowers the committee or even the national, to disqualify anybody, the only body that can disqualify is the screening panel duly constituted by the NWC.

"So, we told them they have no power to disqualify anybody. It was part of the bias they have establish all along," a source in the Lawal group also said.

Another trouble also erupted on the eve of the congresses when the congress committee allegedly handed over a party register, representing delegate list, to the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee for distribution to electoral officers across the state.

It was however alleged that instead of the electoral officers, the register was released to the two groups with 15 local governments to Ladi Adebutu group and five to the Lawal group.

"When the register was brought on Friday prior to the congresses, the committee handed over the register to the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee for distribution to local government and ward.

"They released register of 15 local government to Ladi Adebutu and five register to the other stakeholders," Another source hinted.

The two groups went to the field, using individual registers with them to the designated venues as announced by the party, producing two parallel executives in all the wards.

"As we speak, they have their result and we also have ours. We have submitted to the congress committee and also to INEC, we will take it up from there." the source further confirmed.

Lawal's faction insisted that the Ladi Adebutu group weren't captured in the register used for the congresses, not to talk of being qualified to vote or be voted for in the congresses.

The group is however hoping that the NWC would be able to harmonise the two groups, failure of which might ended up in litigation.

"Let us see how the NWC would be able to resolve the issue, if not the court might have to be involved to adjudicate on the matter to decide whether we are wrong or right, but we are following the due process for now," the source further said.

Speaking on the matters raised, the spokesperson of the Caretaker Committee, Afolabi Orekoya, dismissed all the allegations, adding that there were orchestrated plan by the Lawal group to destroy the party.

Orekoya further maintained that there was no parallel congress, but that Lawal’s group contested the primaries and lost in all the wards.

On the alleged two registers, Orekoya explained that the constitution is to the effect that registration of members should be done at the wards level where the register is kept after authentication by both the Chairman and the secretary at the ward level.

He said, “The party has a constitution and nobody has the power to act outside the provisions of the constitution. The party’s constitution stated clearly who should be the custodian of the party’s register and who should register members.

“In PDP, the constitution says every members shall be registered at their various wards by the wards secretary and the chairman. If you look at Section 8(II) of the party’s constitution, it says the register of the party shall be kept at the ward level and the register shall not be removed from the party’s secretariat.

“Sub-section III said the party register shall be authenticated by the ward Chairman and the Ward Secretary. It is in the constitution.”

Orekoya further explained that the claim of a register by the other group was a ruse as there was only one register maintained at the wards levels.

“We have one structure of the party in Ogun State and the register must be authenticated by the ward chairman and the secretary, which we have and it was the register that was meant to be used for the congress.”

Efforts to get the reaction of the Chairman of the congress committee, Maren, were unsuccessful as several calls and messages sent to his line were neither acknowledged nor returned.

But Orekoya maintained that there was no parallel congress in the state, adding that the Lawal group, despite not following the procedure and guideline, participated in the process of the election but lost.

“PDP has structure, it is not like any other party, if you have only one party structure and you have a single committee, only one congress venue, what do you mean by parallel?

“Go to the field, their candidates contested, we had two lines. In my own ward, despite the fact they didn’t do the right thing, their candidate was on ground, they contested, and they lost.”