Adeleke’s exit from PDP driven by self-interest, says party chieftain

FILE: Adeleke

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Peoples Democratic Party chieftain Umar Sani has alleged that Governor Ademola Adeleke was attempting to prevent the party from producing a candidate ahead of the forthcoming gubernatorial election.

Speaking to ARISE NEWS on Friday, Sani insisted that the governor’s political manoeuvres are aimed at securing his personal survival rather than protecting the interests of the party.

“Governor Adeleke does not want PDP to field a candidate. He believes that there is a problem within the PDP, whose signature will be recognised by INEC and so forth and so on,” Sani said.

This is coming days after Adeleke formally resigned from the PDP, citing persistent leadership turmoil at the party’s national level.

Adeleke and other key leaders of the PDP in the state were absent on Tuesday as the party held its governorship primary, where Adedamola Adebayo emerged as the PDP candidate for the 2026 Osun governorship election.

Adebayo polled 919 votes out of the 957 accredited delegates who participated in the exercise held in Osogbo.

Despite Adeleke’s open exit from the party, the party’s national chairman, Tanimu Turaki, while speaking with newsmen shortly after the party’s National Working Committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, stated that the party had yet to receive any official communication from Adeleke over his resignation.

In his submission, Sani continued, “He’s trying to move to another party, and according to him, he will now get the seat and then return back to PDP. And PDP says, no, we cannot do that. What we want is we want somebody to run on our platform. Because what will the party look like if we have a platform and we do not use anybody on that platform?

“Then how will other people be reacting to other platforms? They will run away and give the same excuse. Let me go and get something from somewhere else and come back. So we said, no, anybody who wants to contest must use our platform.

“And so that’s why we conducted, it was not hijacked by anybody, it was done peacefully, it was all over the social media, it was done peacefully.”

Responding to claims that Adeleke’s strategy may be pragmatic given the uncertainty over which PDP faction INEC may recognise, Sani maintained that while the governor has the constitutional right to defect, he must not prevent the party from fielding its own candidate.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not supposed to support or oppose his decision.

“His decision is entirely his. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches most. So if he decides to go, then he should not allow the party that he’s leaving, not to field another candidate in his own place.

“Nobody is saying he cannot go. It’s a constitutional right for him to go anywhere he wants to go. But let him not also be a stumbling block to our own party fielding a candidate. That is just the major argument. It is not about whether his going is right or wrong or whether it was a smart move to move somewhere else,” he said.

Addressing speculation that the PDP may be fielding a placeholder while its internal issues are resolved, Sani confirmed that the party already has a candidate from its primaries.

“As it is now, we have a candidate. But a candidate can be a placeholder and a placeholder can be a candidate. So in any case, there is a period where we are allowed to make substitutions.

“So if we want to make substitutions, we can make substitutions. But as it is now, we have a candidate who has emerged from the primaries,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, calls made to Osun Governor’s spokesperson, Rasheed Olawale, on Friday for a reaction to Sani’s submission went unanswered as of press time

Tosin, with over six years' experience, conducts incisive interviews, pens engaging features, subedits and delivers impactful stories for the digital sphere.

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