PDP rejects move by Ogunbiyi, Osun Accord Party governorship candidate to rejoin party

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ayedire Local Government Area of Osun State, have rejected attempt by Accord Party’s candidate in the July 16 governorship election in the state, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi to return the party.

Ogunbiyi was a governorship aspirant of PDP before his defection to Accord Party after the primary election.

The party members, in their letter of rejection, signed by the Caretaker Chairman in Ward 5, Ileogbo, Ayedire Local Government Area, Alhaji Makinde Muftau, and addressed to the party leaders both at the state and national levels, stated that Ogunbiyi has been working against the interest of the party since year 2018.

The letter reads: “Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi since 2018, throughout the period he aspired to contest on the platform of the PDP which he later dumped to join the Accord Party in 2022, he never attended any PDP Ward meeting in Ward 05 Ayedire, and he never participated in any party activities at the Ward level since 2018 until he dumped the party in 2022.

“The said Accord Party candidate constitutes serious threats to the safety, integrity and success of the PDP right from 2018 till date as he specialises in deploying his network for rabid anti-party activities with a target to truncate electoral successes of the party; his notification letter to re-join the PDP attests to this as he still addressed himself and signed the letter as the ‘Osun State Accord gubernatorial candidate’.

“The said Accord Party chief in 2018 did all devilish things to stop the party’s electoral victory right from the party primaries, several damaging litigations against the party and his direct working against the party to lose his local government and ward during the 2018 elections. The report of a fact-finding committee set-up by the party attests to the fact that Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi was behind all litigations against the party and her candidate in 2018 (Senator Ademola Adeleke).

“The said Accord Party chief was for decades a close ally of the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu and he has constantly been serving as a mole of APC to destroy PDP from within.

“From 2018 to the just concluded election in Osun State, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi expanded his anti-party activities first by engineering the factionalisation of the state chapter of the party through spurious leadership claims and by deliberate divisive activities designed to weaken the PDP preparatory to the July 16, 2022 governorship election; the catalyst of the damage done to our party by Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi is part of what the expelled Prince Dotun Babayeri took advantage of in fighting the party till date.

“Before his defection to the Accord Party, Ogunbiyi rebuffed all reconciliatory moves and mobilised his team in cohort with the APC to launch the most ferocious damaging media and character assassination attacks against the PDP and its governorship candidate; his close allies and ardent supporters were those who sponsored malicious petition against our governorship candidate during the party’s gubernatorial screening which he marketed on national television and in the media, the said petition formed the fulcrum of APC election petition at the Tribunal against the PDP in the recently held Osun 2022 governorship election.

“The said Dr Ogunbiyi also engaged in underground offensive against the PDP in close coordination with the APC, designing strategies he and his team calculated would truncate any success the PDP may record at the last election.”

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