Osun PDP youths kick against removed of State party chairman

The concerned youths of the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have kicked against the removal of the party Chairman, Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo.
The youths at a press briefing addressed by Comrade Adekanmi Solomon, at Osogbo on Tuesday, the youths claimed that all allegations levelled against him were all fabricated, untrue and fallacious. The allegations have become a problem for the petitioners and their sponsors to prove.
“It is to our knowledge that our chairman worked tirelessly to ensure that this party was built from the unit level, to ward, to local government levels and finally to a winning party at the state level. Also, we are not unaware of his efforts towards positioning the party to become a winning party. Surprisingly, we were taken aback to hear that the chairman, who won all elections that he supervised was being vilified. He not only massively won all elections conducted in his domain, all the people close to him won in all the elections since he has been heading the party in the state. His ardent supporters and followers have been adjudged to have won all elections in their units, wards and, in some instances, in their local governments.
“In 2017, when PDP had been written off by the ruling party with Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his ruling party, APC, members were boasting that they no longer had any viable opposition party in the state to contest against their party, the APC. This same Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo led PDP to victory, beating the ruling party in 9 out of the 10 local government areas of the Osun West Senatorial District bye-election that brought in Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke to replace his deceased eldest brother, late Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke with a wide margin.
“How do we now describe the same man as being anti-party? We have more to say on that but we leave those who made up that allegation for God to judge. We also leave them to their own conscience and for posterity to judge. We believe that their reason for doing this is questionable and it makes their motives more suspicious. We strongly believe they are the ones involved in anti-party activities in some ways which we may not know.
“It becomes more intriguing when somebody who lost in all elections is the one so bold to be accusing another person who won in the same election of anti-party activities, it leaves much to be desired and it calls for questioning. In a sane society, this is expected to be thoroughly investigated by those at the National level, instead of dwelling on mere rumours to pass wrong judgements on an innocent man.
“On our part, we strongly suspect that these people, the petitioners, are being paid to deliberately decimate the party more so at the time the Step-Aside order was handed down when the chairman, Hon. Soji Adagunodo was recording great successes in bringing in almost everybody that had left the party since 2014 back and the party was becoming vibrant, strong and united to chase the draconian government away from the state. It was shocking that such spurous allegations were cooked up and our National leaders acted upon such without proper investigation.
“On the second allegation of financial impropriety, they were talking about campaign funds. It is common knowledge to everybody in Osun PDP that nobody gave any party officials in Nigeria, in the south west any fund and most especially during the gubernatorial elections. We all know how the campaign funds and election funds were handled and distributed personally by the candidate, Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke and his brother, Dr. Deji Adeleke. They did not pass through the party. It was purely a family affair between them and their cronies. All funds were distributed directly from Ede. This also was the case with the Presidential campaign funds. It was received by the candidate’s brother and distributed to the National Assembly candidates of the party, without recourse to the party chairman or any of his executive members.
“So when you’re accusing someone of embezzling campaign funds, you should be able to prove where the money came from, who gave him the money, was it by cash, cheque or transfer. For anybody to have accused our chairman, Hon. Soji Adagunodo of financial impropriety, we need proofs of how he was given such money. Without verifiable proofs, we consider such allegations baseless, useless, mere fabrications, null and void and of no effect which in our opinion and to any responsible organization, does not warrant the attention of the National Working Committee of a big party like the PDP, talk less of imposing such a heavy sanction as suspending an innocent man. It is despicable, to say the least. It is just a calculated attempt to rubbish his name and to destroy the party.
“We are here to let you know that after COVID-19, we are going to embark on mass action in Osun State to let the people know that PDP is our party and not a personal property or a political party of any individual or family. It is a joint venture built by all of us in our various localities without taking a penny from any individual”.