Ahead of 2023 general election, the factional governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Segun Sowunmi, has said that the power of selecting a candidate in a democratic setting is vested in the people, saying that such power determines the outcome of an election.
He was speaking against the backdrop of the recent Supreme Court’s judgment on the Jimi Lawal and Ladi Adebutu case, delivered in favour of Adebutu.
“The franchise of selection of people in a democratic setting resides with the people and ultimately, we will speak to our people in the language they understand, inspire them, explain and justify the reason we are telling them to do so,” he said.
He said the structure of his case at the apex court remains that no political party could be allowed to benefit from undermining its own rules and regulations, oaths of office and would not be allowed to undermine the ground norms of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Our prayer in court is for the Supreme Court to make a declarative order on the same pronouncement that the Appeal Court has made and if God helps us, in the course of time, we will all learn very far reaching lessons from that,” Sowunmi said.
He denied insinuations that he was being sponsored by some political elements to scuttle the chances of his party at the polls, saying that the PDP will reorganise its candidate after the interpretation and determination of the case in the nation’s apex court.
“This is not the first time it is happening, it happened in 2015 and 2019 and it was just a few days to the election before final determination came,” he quipped.
Sowunmi pointed out that the idea of winner takes it all disposition by Adebutu would not help the party but would further heat up the polity and destabilise the party.
“Part of the reason we left a small window for reconciliation with Ladi Adebutu or whoever wins is because of the fact that the electioneering period is not as easy as people think. But it is at my personal expense that the leader will allow him not to conduct rightful primary elections and also allow him singlehandedly to pick all the candidates, as well as pick someone that is just coming into the party as deputy governorship candidate of our party,” he added.
