The Peoples Democratic Party has said that Hon. Ladi Adebutu remains the party’s candidate for the March 2 governorship election.
Addressing the media in Abuja on Thursday, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbodiyan, said the general public, security agencies, all electoral organs, observers and particularly, its teeming supporters in Ogun State , should note that its governorship candidate in the March 2 election in Ogun State remains Hon. Ladi Adebutu.
The PDP also cautioned the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission , Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to insulate the commission from unnecessary controversies by immediately obeying the judgment of the Court of Appeal of December 18, 2018, and, without further delay, reflect Adebutu’s name on the ballot, in the interest of a hitch free and peaceful election in Ogun State.
The PDP stated that Adebutu’s name was duly and statutorily submitted to INEC after he won the governorship primary conducted by the party’s National Working Committee, the only body empowered by law to conduct such primaries, saying PDP had not substituted his nomination with anybody and such was not being contemplated.
The PDP charged the INEC Chairman to note that since the ruling of the Court of Appeal validating Adebutu as the PDP governorship candidate in Ogun State, no other court, not even the Supreme Court, has over turned that extant ruling.
“INEC is therefore compelled to obey the law. It cannot choose for itself which judgment to obey and cannot operate in waiting, anticipation or contemplation of a non-existent consideration in the conduct of the Ogun governorship election”, PDP said.
The PDP therefore urged all Nigerians, particularly the people of Ogun State, to completely disregard certain individuals, including Senator Kashamu Buruji, whom, the party said, had been making misleading comments and trying to create an impression that the Supreme Court had made a pronouncement on the issue.
Moreover, the PDP said that Senator Buruji cannot under any imagination be the governorship candidate of the PDP in Ogun State.
“He is not a member of our party; he did not participate in our Ogun State governorship primary and has no connection whatsoever in our governorship nomination process at any level for that matter.
” INEC cannot go to the streets to pick a candidate for our party. It must therefore, in compliance with the extant judgment of the Court of Appeal, immediately reflect Ladi Adebutu’s name in the ballot, otherwise Nigerians will have no other option than to conclude that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has become compromised to cause confusion and anarchy in Ogun State.
” Finally, the PDP appreciates the people of Ogun State for rallying behind our candidate, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, as he continues to consolidate on the consensus already reached by the people to freely give him the mantle of leadership of their state come March 2, 2019,” the party said.
The PDP therefore cautioned those it described as manipulators in INEC as well as fifth columnists, who are allegedly being funded by anti-democratic forces to destabilise the party in Ogun and cause trouble in the state, to desist from such acts, saying they will be firmly resisted by the people.
