PDP Is Chasing Shadows, Says New APC National Legal Adviser, Ogala

The National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Babatunde Ogala, has taken a swipe 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 in a chat with journalists on Thursday 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 say he could therefore only have uttered those words attributed to him out of ignorance of the provisions of APC Constitution and the Electoral Act.
I am also not unaware of the fact that Mr. Ologbodiyan, having not been present at the venue of our convention, could only have uttered his words based on hearsay and gossips”.

I am also not unconscious of his ignorance of the provisions of the Electoral Act hence he could not point out the relevant sections thereof that was breached. He only spoke to the wind while purporting to speak to informed Nigerians.

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.

“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 were elected unopposed all had the attendant overwhelming ‘YES’ Votes at the National Convention at Eagle Square where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a compliant observer of same.

Mr. Ologbondiyan was fishing in uncharted and murky dark waters and now needs help.

I don’t intend to help him out of his futile exercise.

“Honourable Justice Nnaemeka Agu of the Court of Appeal as he then was 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 financial inducement or shove them forcefully down the throats of our members.
That is the difference between us just like 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.”