Osun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has said demands by its ex-governorship aspirant, Prince Dotun Babayemi, for party tickets in next general election to discontinue case challenging Senator Ademola Adeleke’s candidature, was rather strange and undemocratic.
Babayemi, who is currently at the Supreme Court challenging the primary that produced Adeleke as the PDP governorship candidate, in an interview published in Sunday PUNCH, listed release of one out of the three senatorial tickets and four out of the nine House of Representatives tickets to his camp.
He also said 10 tickets of the state House of Assembly, out of the 26 were demanded as part of the conditions that must be met before the matter would be withdrawn.
But reacting to Babayemi in a statement on Sunday, Osun PDP caretaker chairman, Dr Akindele Adekunle said, “Asking the PDP to relinquish tickets of duly elected candidates of the party to some unknown individuals in the face of the law and the electoral act without any just cause, was not only strange to PDP as a democratic organization, but also akin to destabilizing the party towards the coming elections.
“While peace and democratic culture may be alien to the likes of Prince Babayemi judging by his acrimonious political antecedent, it is however a flamboyant ignorance for anyone to expect the PDP to bend awkwardly to the side of illegality to please his ego or political greed.
“For avoidance of doubt, the ward executives of the party who took the lawful decision to remove Babayemi as PDP member in Osun State, are elected officials administering our great party in Otun Balogun ward 2, in Ayedaade local government, and are elected officials, empowered on statutory duties, including enforcement of party discipline.”