The crisis rocking the Ondo State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yeaterday assumed a dangerous dimension as the Chief Tayo Alabi led Executive was sacked by the Professor Olu Agbi’s faction declaring it as existing in contempt of a valid court order even as it accused them of collecting bribe from ACN leader Sen. Bola Tinubu to destabilise the state.
The Tayo Alabi faction had last week Monday pronounced the Agbi group which include Prof Olu Agbi, Sen. Gbenga Oguniya, Chief Segun Adegoke, Hon.Demola Adegoroye, Dr Akin Olowokere and Kunle Agunbiade expelled from the party giving their alleged romance with the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko and the Labour Party as reasons.
But in a swift reaction to their purported expulsion, the Agbi faction at a press conference in Akure yesterday described members of the Alabi faction as gangsters and announced their expulsion from the PDP in the state.
The Agbi led faction explained that, a large number of the party members had converged some months ago to declare the Ondo state chapter of the party seriously ill and that it needed political surgery to cure the ailment before the October 20th election The group further explained that the organisational structure of the PDP had become destabilised since the court of Appeal Judgement of 23rd February 2009 thus making the party lose all bye elections to the state and Federal legislative houses between 2009 and 2011. It added that the total loss of the 2011 elections to the state and Federal Legislature finally helped to expose the rot in the party to the outside world.
Continuing, the Agbi led group said its efforts to promote reconciliation amongst leaders of the party met the stiff resistance of Dr Olusegun Agagu and his cohorts.
Nonetheless, the State Exco was forced to resign and a Transition Committee was put in place to midwife the Congress with the proviso that the Committee will not participate in the Congresses or seek elective positions in the party.
However, when it became clear that Dr Agagu would encourage the Committee to transmute themselves into a permanent State Executive, some concerned members of the party went to court and obtained an order of Injunction to restrain the Committee from participating or organising the Local Government and state Congresses. The group explained further that the order which is still subsisting till date was flagrantly violated by the Committee. Therefore we are informing all members of our great party and the general public that Tayo Alabi led Executive is not only illegal, it existed in contempt of a valid court order that has not been set aside, every action of the so-called executive cannot therefore stand the text of legality. Prof. Agbi described the PDP in the state as lacking in internal democracy adding that that has been the bane of the party. The the same illegal Exco went ahead to conduct the primaries for the party by selecting five persons from each Local Government, he noted.
These ninety persons were brought to Akure out of which one person, was handpicked per a local government and taken to a secret location from where Chief Olusola Oke was thrown up as a unanimous choice amongst eleven aspirants the group said, adding that the gangsters still wallowing in their foolishness have been trying to cover their illegality with criminality by purportedly expelling some eminent members of our party For actions which it described as unbecoming of party leaders and for engaging in anti-party activities and for particularly attending meeting and collecting money from Bola Tinubu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, in order to collaborate with him during the election and take steps to destabilise and rupture the peace prevailing in the Ondo state, the Agbi group thus pronounced expelled from the party Dr OLusegun Agagu, Mr Ebenezer Alabi, Dr Tayo Dairo, Mr Victor Olabimtan, Chief Sanya Orungbemi and Olabisi Johnson.
The group further announced the dismissal of one Ayo Fadaka whom it described as a mere paid staff of the party pending his prosecution for fraudulently converting a sum of N226,000.