THE CHAIRMAN
PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP)
KOGI STATE
NIGERIA.
Dear Sir,
PETTITION AGAINST IMPOSITION OF IJUMU LOCAL GOVERNMENT PDP CHAIRMAN BY SENATOR DINO MELAYE AND HIS CHRONIES.
IJUMU ARIN PDP REJECTS THE IMPOSITION OF ONE MR BODE SAMUEL AGAINST THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE: MR JOSEPH ABEJIDE.
PREAMBLES:
Ijumu local government is made of three (3) distinct districts , namely: Gbede district, Ijumu Arin district, and Ijumu Oke district.
These 3 districts have been in existence since pre-colonial days and they have been cohabiting as brothers of the same culture and one language.
Ijumu people are commonly referred to as civilized, educated, and well cultured. They are found in all spheres of life as they are peace-loving and blessed with great intellectual sagacity.
In sharing positions, traditional or political, we have an age-long rotational arrangement which is considered very sacrosanct to all and sundry in the Local Govt. — it is upheld by us as our own law of the Medes. A graphic example, the ascension of Olujumu stool is based on this implied rotational arrangement.
It is in this spirit that political positions, elective or party executive positions are rotated among the 3 distinct axes of Ijumu without interference.
Since the inception of our noble Party, PDP in 1998, it has been this principle of implied rotation we have operated upon to date.
To constitute the current LOC Govt Executives, the existing eighteen (18) Local Govt Executive positions were shared equally among the 3 districts in the Local Govt . based on this existing rotational arrangement with Gbede district having two (2) principal positions (the Secretary and the overall women leader) among its six (6) slots , Ijumu Oke district also with two (2) principal positions (Vice Chairman and Youth Leader ) , while Ijumu Arin has only one (1) principal position ( Chairman) among its six (6) slots .
It is on record that when the choices of Alh.Muriana Idris from Gbede district as the Local Govt Chairman for the party ( 2012 – 2016) , and that of Alh.S. O. Ibrahim , the immediate past Local Govt Chairman (2017- 2021) were made , the districts enjoyed full liberty to make their choices without any interference from Ijumu Arin district. This has been the usual practice in all our past elected LOC Govt party executives — no undue interference from the other district(s) once positions are allotted for consensus candidates to be presented for ratification.
Hitherto the October congress , precisely , on the 13th of September, 2021, there was a stakeholders meeting that took place at Hon. Abiodun Ojo residence, at Egbeda Egga at the instance of Prince Olusola Akomode where Senator Dino Melaiye boasted and said “if any ward elected anyone he doesn’t like or who doesn’t meet his interest, he will change it at the top”. He went further to say sarcastically ” there are nomination forms but forms supersede forms”.
We only noted it but nobody believed he meant business.
After the meeting, each district went into action and elected 6 party executives members allotted to it and took them to Iyara , Ijumu local government headquarters for screening . Hitherto to the official screening, Iyara community where the party chairmanship was zoned to had made a choice of a consensus candidate in person of MR ABEJIDE JOSEPH alias Kapa from among the three (3) aspirants in the community that showed interest in the contest and he was presented for the official screening exercise.
It was at the screening Venue chairman of the screening committee ,Hon. Richard Akanmode said he would not screen Mr. Joseph Abejide because our leaders (Prince Shola Akanmode, Chief Biodun Ojo, and Senator Dino Melaiye), by his own judgment or opinion would have to meet to ratify the choice of MR ABEJIDE JOSEPH . The Screening Committee Chairman , Hon Richard Akanmode made this decision without giving cognisance to the fact that pre-screening form (Consensus Form) had been filled by Joseph Abejide a week earlier without objection. The Screening Committee Chairman
thereafter, screened the rest 17 executive members and said that the chairman may likely be by primary election.
On the 5th of October 2021, the party sent a Returning Officer from the State Party Secretariat, Lokoja to Iyara to conduct the Local Govt Congress election at Iyara solely for the party Local Govt Chairmanship. The congress was peaceful , fair and transparent with MR ABEJIDE JOSEPH emerging as the winners and was declared as such with 182 votes
The election was supervised by INEC, Nigerian Police, DSS, and the Civil Defense who were all served with copy of the result.
However, after the state submitted the list of all the elected executives to the national headquarters of the party and sane was returned to the state party chairman to cross-examine for authentication in preparation for the national congress, it was discovered that MR JOSEPH ABEJIDE NAME’s HAS BEEN CHANGED TO ONE BODE SAMUEL.
It was further discovered that the imposition was done by Senator Dino Melaiye in collaboration with some selfish collaborators to supplant our popular choice of candidate.
Based on the above preamble,
IJUMU ARIN PDP CALLED THIS EMERGENCY MEETING HELD THIS DAY, 19TH DAY OF OCTOBER 2021 AT HON. S , K. ADEKUNLE RESIDENCE , IYAMOYE , IJUMU AND ISSUED THE COMMUNIQUE BELOW TO NOTIFY OUR PARTY PDP AT THE STATE LEVEL AND NATIONAL LEVEL TO TAKE URGENT STEPS TO CORRECT THE ABNORMALITY AND SAVE OUR PARTY FROM DESTRUCTION BY WICKED, SELFISH , INCONSIDERATE AND OPPRESSIVE ELEMENTS THAT ARE AGENTS OF DISUNITY .
We, therefore, resolved as follows:
1, the meeting reviewed all that transpired before the screening and the congress that took place. We affirm it was peacefully and transparently conducted and supervised by INEC and all other security agencies and a clear winner emerged in the person of MR JOSEPH ABEJIDE alias Kapa and the result was accepted by all as free and fair.
2, That all 17executives from 13 wards out of 15 wards were present and voted accordingly with MR. JOSEPH ABEJDE SCORING 182 VOTES OUT OF THE TOTAL 255 VOTES FROM THE 15 WARDS
IN IJUMU LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
3, That the Returning Officer duly pronounced him elected as the authentic PDP chairman of Ijumu local government for the next 4years.
4, That we in Ijumu Arin (home and in diaspora) stand firmly by Mr. Joseph Abejide , the duly elected candidate and we shall resist any imposition by Dino Melaiye and his collaborators to supplant our choice.
5, That Ijumu Arin PDP considers Dino and his agents’ action as insulting to our collective decision and as an affront to our sensibility as a people of Ijumu, and we therefore, demand an apology.
6, that Ijumu Arin people were never informed how Gbede and Ijumu oke districts arrived at the principal positions zoned to their districts neither did we interfere in their choice of candidates.
It is therefore unbecoming of some people priding themselves as demigods , having some feelings that without them, PDP cannot move forward in Ijumu.
We want to warn that Ijumu Arin shall no longer tolerate oppression, cheating and indecent manipulations in the name of leadership.
7, We state clearly that One MR BODE SAMUEL IMPOSED BY DINO MELAIYE AND HIS CO TRAVELLERS IS NOT A MEMBER OF PDP AND HIS NAME IS NOT IN IYARA WARD PDP MEMBERSHIP REGISTER.
HE NEVER PARTOOK IN THE PRIMARY THAT PRODUCED THE WINNER. HE IS A MEMBER OF APC AND IYARA WARD COORDINATOR FOR AVM JUBRIL ISAH DURING THE 2019 GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARY. AND HE WAS DINO SURROGATE WHEN DINO DEFECTED TO APC.
,8 That Ijumu Arin candidate , Mr. Joseph Abejide, must not be used to settle political scores with any seeming political enemies . We shall not allow any leader from Gbede and Ijumu oke districts to manipulate us for their political gain any longer
9, We condemn in totality the interference of some leaders from the other axes in Ijumu Arin affairs and we warn them to desist from it henceforth.
10, We also warn the agents of disunity and those with obnoxious intention to frustrate Ijumu Arin PDP to desist from their folly forthwith.
11, We wish to state that interference in this context is irresponsible, over ambitious, wicked, oppressive and myopic.
12, We call on the good leadership of the state PDP chairman, Engr Ohotu to please take immediate action to remedy the imposition by Dino Melaiye to avoid the kind of squabbles caused by the kogi west PDP Zonal Chairmanship tussle.
13, We appreciate greatly all the leaders and fellow party members that are playing commendable roles to ensure that the Ijumu Arin candidate is left untouched.
We are also grateful to our party at the state for standing by the truth and upholding justice and fair play at all times.
14. Finally, we give 5 days to Dino and his cohorts to revert the PDP party chairman NAME in Ijumu local government to JOSEPH ABEJIDE THE PEOPLES CHOICE OR WE SHALL HAVE NO PATIENCE TO RECOURSE TO LEGAL REMEDY.
Signed:
Hon. S. K. Adekunle, a Former Member, Kogi State House of Assembly.
