Oyo PDP expels Folarin, Oyelese, Adeojo, others

[TGD]

 It's a ruse, they say

CITING their alleged anti-party activities and contribution to the losses suffered by the erstwhile ruling political grouping in the last April polls, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state yesterday expelled the immediate past Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin,  Senator Lekan Balogun, former Deputy National Chairman of the party in the South, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo and former Minister of Power and Steel, Wole Oyelese.

Others given the boot at the enlarged PDP state executive meeting presided over by former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala are one-time Deputy Governor in the state, Alhaji Hazeem Gbolarumi Senator Gbenga Babalola and Abass Olopoenia.

The expelled leaders were the arrowheads of the coalition against the second term bid of Alao-Akala. Three of them who lost the party's governorship primaries to Alao-Akala had gone to court to challenge his emergence as the PDP's candidate for the April gubernatorial polls.

The aggrieved leaders in separate reactions have described their purported expulsion as a huge joke that cannot stand.

In a communique issued at the end of its meeting held at the Greenspring Hotel in the state capital and attended by all the political functionaries in the Alao-Akala administration, the group premised its action on the outcome of the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja which recommended dismissal for all erring party chieftains who worked against it in the last general elections.

In the communique signed by the Director of Media and Strategy of the party in the state, Dr. Morounkola Thomas, he explained that the meeting, which was called at the instance of the former governor deliberated on the report of the party's NEC and also adopted the Olusegun Agagu committee report set up to examine the reasons behind the electoral defeat of the PDP at the polls.

The meeting also resolved that any aggrieved member who had left the party and wants to return must do so through his ward and not from Abuja.

The group also directed President Goodluck Jonathan to remove all party chieftains who had since left the PDP but are still serving in National Boards.

Describing the conduct of the expelled party leaders during the last general elections as unsatisfactory and condemnable, the group said the decision to send them away from the party was borne out of its desire to entrench discipline within its rank and file.

And to reconcile other aggrieved party chieftains, it set up a 13-man committee headed by former Chief of Staff to Alao-Akala, Chief Saka Balogun.

The communique read in part, "the meeting which was called by the leader of the party and attended by all members of the state executive council deliberated on the report from NEC meeting and adoption of Agagu report. The NEC emphasised the issue of discipline and that all those who worked against the party in the last election must be dismissed from the party... the conduct of some leaders of the party at the national level in interfering with the election processes behind the PDP governorship candidate who was a sitting governor was less than satisfactory, the anti party activities of some leaders of the party are shameful and totally condemnable.

The meeting resolved that all those who had been involved in anti-party activities stand expelled. If they are interested in returning to the party, they should go back to their various wards."

But in a swift reaction, Folarin, Balogun and Gbolarumi described the action of the Alao-Akala group as null and void.

Folarin maintained that nobody can expel or suspend him from a party which he represented for eight years at the Senate.

" I am an authentic member of the party, we have told them that there is need to overhaul the party machinery in Oyo State and a genuine reconciliation pursued, this is the time for the State executive  to go back to the drawing board and bring all aggrieved members back to the fold, this is not the time for flimsy excuses. For eight years, I served as Senator under PDP, why should I be doing anti-party now."

Balogun in the same vein described the development as "a huge joke and arrant lawlessness typical of the Alao-Akala group."

The fourth Republic Senator insisted that the executive that convened the meeting is illegal and unknown, adding, "is it anti-party to reject tyranny and anti-people candidates at the polls?

Gbolarumi said the Alao-Akala group should go back to the party's constitution and check whether or not its action was in order.

The deputy to the impeached former Governor Rashidi Ladoja in the latter's 11-month-old administration said before a party member can be suspended or expelled, such a person must be given fair hearing, saying in this instant case, there was nothing of such.



The Guardian