Joseph Bakare
The new National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Babatunde Ogala, has reacted at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to void the election of the new APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, alleging that it was not in compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
He said the opposition PDP was merely chasing shadows.
Speaking the media in Lagos, Ogala said the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, who made the statement, betrayed his ignorance of the law.
Ogala said: “In responding to Mr. Ologbodiyan, I will take cognizance of his lack of knowledge of law and could therefore only have uttered those words attributed to him out of ignorance of the provisions of APC Constitution. I am also not unaware of the fact that Mr. Ologbodiyan, having not been present at the venue of the convention, could only have uttered his words based on hearsay and gossips”.
He added: “The import of the extant provision of Article 20 of the APC Constitution was obviously not known to Mr. Ologbodiyan and his party PDP at the time he made his assertions.
“As Mr. Ologbodiyan and his PDP were not present at our Convention, they are busy-bodies who could not have known that the election of the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and 21 other officers that that were elected unopposed all had the attendant overwhelming ‘YES’ Votes at the National Convention at Eagle Square and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a compliant observer of the convention. Mr. Ologbondiyan was fishing in uncharted and murky dark waters and now needs help.
“Honourable Justice Nnaemeka Agu of the Court of Appeal in the case of:- Rufus Faloyinbo –Vs- IbidapoAwojolu & Anor (1979) LPELR – FCA/3/56/78 held as follows:- “It is the law that in a case where there is no opposition, the date on which the candidate is returned unopposed is the date of his election”.
Maintaining that APC is different from PDP, Ogala said: “We do not coerce our Chairmen and Officers out of office through brute force. Neither do we impose leaders through inducement or shove them forcefully down the throats of our members. That is the difference between us, as the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said at our convention that ‘we are progressive. They are backward. They are despotic, we are democratic’.
“For the avoidance of doubts, those candidates who stepped down their ambitions to allow others elected unopposed, were clearly motivated by the larger interest of the party and sustenance and deepening of our democratic process. We salute those persons as the heroes of our party.
“It is the success of our convention, obviously, that makes the PDP uneasy and fidgety to start chasing shadows and winking in the dark. May they continue their shadow-chasing.”