Leaders of the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party have said a former governor of the state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has refused to work with them as they prepare for the August 9 governorship election in the state.
The Publicity Secretary of Osun PDP, Mr. Bola Ajao, told our correspondent that Oyinlola said he would not participate in the PDP’s campaigns for its governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, because of his suspension as national secretary.
Ajao said the party had gone ahead with its campaigns without Oyinlola and some of his loyalists. He, however, expressed optimism that the party would merge victorious in the forthcoming election.
“According to him (Oyinlola), he is not participating in what we are doing because he was suspended by the national leadership of the party. He claims he is still the national secretary of the PDP but since there is a substantive national secretary, he is waiting for court ruling,” Ajao said.
The Osun PDP spokesperson refuted insinuations that the recent expulsion of six leaders of the party would affect the party’s chances in the election.
Ajao said those who were expelled should have been expelled some months ago when they were suspended for anti-party activities.
He added that the expelled members, some of whom have joined the All Progressives Congress, had no electoral value and that their expulsion would not affect the PDP.
He said, “Sometime ago, they were involved in a number of anti-party activities, they were suspended and because we did not want to wield the big stick anyhow, some members of the party prevailed on the party leadership not to expel them. Some of them wrote letters of apology, and they were readmitted into the party.
“In the case of the expelled members, they were suspended until we found them incorrigible, and we saw that they were not retracing their steps. We had to expel them. One of them was the secretary of the party and one was a personal assistant to Oyinlola. We were threading softly but it got to a point that it was decided that they had to be given the red card.
“There will certainly be no repercussion at all. They are featherweights, they are of no electoral consequence. We kept them until we realised that it was not good to keep enemies within the fold. It was better we expelled them. We are certain that they will not be of any value to the APC.”