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Governor Adebayo
Alao-Akala has vowed to fight the removal of his name from the
governorship candidates’ list by the Independent National Electoral
Commission. The commission removed the name of the governor as PDP
governorship candidate for Oyo state in the April 2011 election on
Tuesday, citing a subsisting court order. But in a statement made
available to journalists in Ibadan on Wednesday, Morohunkola Thomas,
director of publicity and communication of the Akala/Arapaja Campaign
Organisation, noted that the governor would challenge both the interim
order acted upon by INEC and the substantive suit against him.

The opposition
within the party in the state had sought the rejection of the list of
candidates presented by the ruling PDP for elective posts in the state
for the 2011 election, arguing that the state executive committee that
conducted the primaries that produced the candidate was not properly
constituted, as the congress that produced the team was inconclusive.
The aggrieved parties then sought and secured an interim order to
restrain the INEC from accepting the list pending the determination of
the suit by the Federal High Court in Ibadan. Acting on the interim
order, the national headquarters of the INEC announced the removal of
the names of Oyo state PDP candidates from the contestants of the April
polls. The removal came just a few hours after the leaders of the party
presented the governor with their flag at a colourful campaign flag-off
ceremony in Ibadan to symbolize their backing of his candidacy for the
election. Already, the governor was said to have engaged the services
of senior lawyers to represent him in court to push for the vacation of
the order today.

“To think that some expired and unpopular politicians can use some
extra political means to achieve what they could not achieve on the
political field is nothing but wishful thinking,” Mr. Thomas said in
his release.