The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State of causing confusion in the party.
It said the governor was behind the plan to hold the South-West zonal congress in Akure on Saturday despite the court order which asked the party to suspend the exercise.
National Secretary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, stated this while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Saturday.
Oladipo said that the party had decided to obey the order of Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which restrained the party from going ahead with its zonal congress.
Apart from Akure, another faction of the party had planned to hold a separate zonal congress in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State on the same day before the court order was served on the party’s national leadership.
The judge had ruled on an ex parte application brought before him on Thursday by the incumbent PDP South-West Zonal Secretary, Chief ‘Pegba Otemolu, and restrained the party from going ahead with the scheduled congress.
The judge said the order would subsist until the final determination of Otemolu’s main suit.
But a day later, Fayose had stormed the national secretariat in Abuja, where he boasted that the congress would go ahead.
Oladipo said on Saturday that the National Legal Adviser of the party, Mr. Victory Kwon, had advised the party to obey the order of the court, which he said was served on him(Oladipo) and the party on Friday afternoon.
He also said that the National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff who he said was not at the party secretariat on Friday when the order was served, had been notified.
Oladipo, who is the head of the party’s national secretariat said, “Governor Fayose is not a member of the National Working Committee of the PDP, but he’s causing confusion with his utterances.
“We are not dabbling into his government and he has no right to tell us how to run the party here. We have an order of the court stopping the congress. The governor cannot overrule the court.
“He should behave like other governors who do not dabble into the running of the party at the national level. He should learn from Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State who respect the party and the President of the country.
“The order of the court was even published in three national dailies and therefore, he can’t deny he was not aware.
“Our National Legal adviser who is the Chief Legal Adviser of the part, Mr. Victor Kwon, has advised that we comply with the order and we are complying with it. We are not above the law of the land.”
Oladipo said whatever result that come out of the convention would not be respected by the party as it would amount to waste of time and resources.
According to him, “Those who want to claim they want to organise any conference are doing that on their own, not on behalf of the party.
“Whatever come out of it would be null and void because we are not monitoring it just as the Independent National Electoral Commission has also been informed about the order of the court.
“So, the commission will also not be part of any illegality . We definitely won’t be part of it.”
Our correspondent gathered that INEC had been served with the court order and had directed its officers to stay away from fine congress.
But the governor said he was attending the congress as a loyal member of the party.
The governor, who spoke with through his Media Aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said he was only invited to attend the congress.
He said, “Fayose is not a member of the NWC, he isnot a member of the congress committee but he was invited as a member of the party.
“The congress committee is in Akure and that’s why we are attending. Oladipo is an interested party. The governor is interested in the smith-running of the party. The party is not run on the pages of the newspaper.
“If the national chairman said he was not aware of the court order as at Friday, why trying to stop the congress then? Fayose is not interested in any crisis. “
