Tag: Oyinlola

Following threats by members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) to ensure the resumption of former Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as the National Secretary of the mainstream PDP, the leadership of the party in the South West has told Oyinlola to perish the thought.

The leadership of the party, consisting the Zonal Caretaker Committee, the State Chairmen Forum, the Elders Committee, the Stakeholders Forum, the Organisation and Mobilisation Committee, the Women and Youth fora, said: “It is the height of self-delusion for Oyinlola and his co-travellers to imagine that he would return as the National Secretary of our great party, the PDP, when a motion for stay of execution has been filed at the Court of Appeal and there is a pending appeal against him at the Supreme Court.”

In a statement issued yesterday by the Acting Chairman, Caretaker Committee, South West PDP, Engr. Adedeji Doherty, the party said: “It is an indubitable fact that he has since left our great party for a renegade group known as ‘New PDP’ that has been outlawed by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“The said group has been meeting with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

“In fact, it was on the basis of these and other anti-party acts that some of his loyalists were recently suspended by the Osun State chapter of the party.”

The party wondered where Oyinlola and his co-travellers seek to return him, asking: “Is it as the National Secretary of a party he voluntarily left or as the National Secretary of his outlawed and illegal group? Why do they want to reap when they did not have the patience for harvest to come? If they knew they had a good case, why did they jump ship?”

It vowed to resist any attempt to arm-twist the national leadership of the party “to take any hasty decision in view of the obvious and emerging facts of the verdict of the Court of Appeal”

The party urged the police and other security agencies to rise up to the challenge and nip in the bud any act that could lead to a breakdown of law and order “should Oyinlola and his gang seek to want to take the law into their own hands.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun has lifted the suspension of some members of the party believed to be loyalists of the party’s National Secretary former Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

This is contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa, state Chairman of the party, and issued yesterday in Osogbo.

The Federal Court of Appeal in Abuja had on Thursday upheld the election of Oyinlola as the duly elected as National Secretary of the party.

It will also be recalled that the party had earlier in September announced the suspension of the party’s members who were accused of attending a rally organised at the instance of Oyinlola in Okuku, his country home.

The statement stated that the party took the action at the end of its State Executive Committee meeting held at its secretariat in Ogo-Oluwa, Osogbo.

It said the party executive resolved that the suspension be lifted on the affected members in response to the court’s ruling that reinstated Oyinlola as the party’s national scribe.

The statement said the party had granted  “state pardon” to other chieftains of the party who had earlier been suspended for similar reasons.

Affected persons were Alhaji Ademola Rasaq, former state chairman, and Chief Yinka Adeojo, former state secretary of the party as well as Alhaji Bakare Akomola, a party chieftain.

The statement said the party had become united, stronger and more focused, stressing that all the bickering among members had become a thing of the past.

It, however, stated that the state party remained  loyal to the Alhaji Bamagar Tukur-led executive.

The Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed yesterday’s decision by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, voiding the earlier sack of former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the party’s national secretary.

The party is urging the Supreme Court to sustain Oyinlola’s sack by reversing the judgment of the Court of Appeal on the ground that the appellate court erred in its decision.

It has also prayed the apex court to stay execution of the Court of Appeal judgment, pending the determination of its appeal.

In a notice of appeal, the party raised four grounds of appeal. It argued that the appellate court erred in law when it overturned the January 11 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, sacking Oyinlola.

The appellate court held, among others, that the order which the Ogun PDP sought to be enforced in the order, was made in breach of the 1st defendant’s (Oyinlola’s) right to fair hearing because he was not a party to that action in which the order was made.

In the appeal filed for the party by Adebayo Dayo and Semiu Sodipo (state’s chairman and secretary), the apellant argued that the Court of Apeal failed, in its judgment yesterday, to realise that it lacked the jurisdiction to invalidate/nullify the order made by Justice Abdulkadir Abdulkafarati in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 “when there was no appeal against that order before it”.

The appellant argued that, in reaching its decision, the appellate court went on a voyage of discovery because there was no appeal or valid complaint against that order before it in the appeal.

The Ogun PDP argued that the order made by Justice Abdulkafarati of the Federal High Court was made within the disciplinary jurisdiction of the court to restore its ability to deal with the substantive issues raised in the case.

The order, it said, was also meant as a punishment for breach of its interlocutory order by respondents in the case, and in that context, was a final order in respect of which Oyinlola could have appealed as an interested party (even though not a party to the action) since the order tangentially affected his interests as a nominee of the invalid Southwest congress that was nullified by that order.

“The Court of Appeal (Abuja Division) went beyond the remit of its powers under the Constitution and the Court of Appeal Act when it decided to sit on appeal over the order made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 when the appeal filed against the said order had been withdrawn and struck out by the Lagos Division of the court,” the appellant argued.

The appellant also contend that the appellate court misdirected itself on the facts when it found that there were other cases filed to enforce the order made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 and that this rendered the current action to enforce the said order an abuse of process.

It stated that the court’s finding was contrary to the evidence on the record before it and could only have been a product of speculation.

The Ogun PDP also faulted the appellate court on the ground that it erred in law when it held that the suit was an abuse of process. It argued there was no evidence before the court that there were other actions brought between the same parties.

The appellant argued that the lower court erred in law when it found that Oyinlola had filed an application for stay of the order (made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2013) at Court of Appeal Lagos Division when the suit to enforce the said order was filed and prosecuted.

It argued that the decision of the appellate court on that issue was “a perverse finding of fact as it was based on no evidence and was in fact contrary to the evidence admitted by the 1st defendant (Oyinlola) in the record before the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has fixed October 10  for the hearing of an appeal by sacked National Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Oyinlola is challenging his sack by the Federal High Court.

The PDP prayed the court for an extension of time to file its response.

The court granted the request and fixed the  October 10  date for hearing.

Appellant’s lawyer Awa Kalu (SAN) drew the court’s attention to the fact that a Federal High Court presided over by  Justice Abdulkadir Abdul-Kafarati last Friday, gave another ruling in relation to the case on which his client’s appeal was pending.