18th January, 2011
Three Oyo State governorship aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, former Minister, Elder Wole Oyelese, Hazeem Gbolarunmi and the former Vice Chairman of the South West PDP, Alhaji Yekinni Ayoade Adeojo and 34 others have sued Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP over the just concluded party congress and primary in the state. 
The PDP members in two separate suits filed at the Federal High Court, and the Oyo State High Court on Monday 17 January are asking the court to set aside both the delegates and primaries election where Governor Alao-Akala was elected to represent the party at the forthcoming governorship poll.
In the suit filed yesterday by Gbolarunmi and Adeojo which was supported with an 11 paragraph affidavit, the counsel to the applicants, the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Michael Lana, sought for an injunction restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission from including any name of any candidate of the PDP in Oyo State for the governorship election on the basis of the aforesaid primary election.
They further asked for an injunction restraining the PDP from relying on the result of the purported primary election in Oyo State and submitting any name of any purported winner of the said primary election as its governorship candidate in Oyo State to the INEC.
They held that both the party’s congress and primary contravene the Electoral Act 2010 thereby rendering the two exercise null, void and of no effect.
The plaintiffs stressed that the exclusion of the applicants from the said congress and primary election was a contravention of the Electoral Act.
In a chat with an Ibadan High Chief, Chief Lekan Balogun, he urged not only politicians but all Nigerians to put their hands on deck to ensure that leaders in our society emerge through democratic process.
He said that the suits filed against the PDP congress and primary were in order, stressing that the congress and primary did not follow due process hence they were unlawful.
— Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
