Osun SDP congress affront to Judiciary ―Chairman

OSUN State chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Ademola Ishola on Monday described the last Saturday ward congress of the party as an affront to the judiciary, saying that genuine members of the party would not fold their arms and allow some desperate politicians to take over the party in the state.

Ishola in a statement issued in Osogbo also described his purported suspension and that of the party’s secretary in the state, Elder Femi Awe as a joke and an insincere manipulation by some desperate politicians, who he claimed, failed to follow the constitutional procedures of the SDP for removing top officers of the party.

He further stated that “First of all, four of our members including the chairman of SDP chairmen in the local governments, Mr. Rasheed Mayowa approached the State High Court, sitting in Ikirun for an interim court order stopping the party or some people purporting to represent the party national executive from going ahead with any Congress.”

According to Ishola, “the high court judge sitting in Ikirun granted the interim order and the order was served on INEC, Chief Iyiola Omisore, Mr. Taiwo Akeju and SDP national secretary, Mr. Emeka Atuna. As I have said earlier, the above-mentioned names were aware of the court order. Barrister Kehinde Adesiyan represented SDP in court on Friday, the 29th of June 2018 and he was provided with a copy of the court order.”

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“Barrister Adeyemi Adetise represented Omisore in court. But his submission for dismissal of our application was also rejected by the judge. He was also provided with a copy of the court order on behalf of Omisore”, he remarked.

Reacting over the development, the secretary of the steering committee of the SDP in Osun, Mr Taiwo Akeju, who spoke during a telephone chat with the Nigerian Tribune said “Ishola had no legal authority to comment on issues, relating to the party in the state,” declaring that “he remains suspended until he clears himself with the national leadership of the party in Abuja.”

He affirmed that “Ademola Ishola has no locus standi because he has been suspended by the national body of the party. He should go to Abuja and clear himself. He has no legal right to say anything on the SDP in Osun State. On the issue of court injunction, up till this moment, we are not aware of any court order. The counsel that he claimed was in court has not informed us that he had been served with any order”.

“The suspended chairman is running afoul of the law. We in Osun SDP are law-abiding and anything in the court, we would not comment on it. To us, he’s is suspended and he is no longer the chairman of the party, ditto for Awe. On the purported injunction, he claimed to have obtained we are not aware of it. The party has not been served and we have not run afoul of the law. We are continuing with the activities of the party,” Akeju asserted.