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Leader of the
opposition coalition within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo
State, Lekan Balogun, has called on the state governor, Adebayo
Alao-Akala to apologise to the people of the state for using the
state-owned media to peddle falsehood on situation of the PDP in the
state.

Mr Balogun, who
commented on the PDP congresses which took off in the state yesterday,
said it was the governor who used the media to hide the truth about the
party.

“It was a
confirmation of my group’s position that people of the state still love
the PDP, but were only tired of governor Akala who needs to apologise
to the people of the state for his maladministration, by using the
state owned electronic media to mislead the masses of the state about
the true position of things,” he said.

The coalition and
the group loyal to the governor hold different viewpoints on the
legality of the state executive council of the party in the state.
While the coalition had insisted that the party exco was illegal, as
the election that brought it into place had been restrained by an High
Court order, the other faction thought otherwise.

The National
Working Committee of the party finally waded in last Monday to dissolve
the exco and ordered fresh congresses to produce officers of the party
in the wards, local government and the state.

Mr Balogun
expressed satisfaction on the ward congress held yesterday which
witnessed large turn-out. The former senator also berated former
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Richard
Akinjide, for opposing the order of the party’s NWC on the state exco.

Support for NWC

Mr Akinjide had
declared the order illegal, unconstitutional and contemptuous, arguing
that an High Court had granted the exco a leave against any
interference from any body.

But, Mr Balogun noted that the exco was not known to the law in the first place.

“You don’t build
something on nothing, hence the purported certified true copy of court
order said to have proclaimed that nobody should interfere with the
executive council of the party in Oyo State had no basis on the ground
that there was no executive council for the party known to law in the
state ab initio,” he said.

He praised the
national leadership of the party for giving the order, insisting that
it was timely and capable of correcting the alleged maladministration
of the current government in the state.