The Nyesom Wike-backed Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has disowned a petition challenging the re-election of Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, the faction’s National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, clarified that the PDP neither authorised nor endorsed Election Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026 before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo.
This came a few days after the tribunal displayed petitions purportedly filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the PDP challenging the outcome of the August 15 governorship election.
Mohammed described the petition bearing the PDP’s name as unauthorised, insisting that it did not represent the position of the party.
According to him, the PDP neither instituted, sponsored, approved nor endorsed any legal action challenging Adeleke’s victory in the election.
The PDP faction spokesman cited Article 42 of the PDP Constitution, which he said vests the authority to institute and conduct legal proceedings on behalf of the party in the National Legal Adviser.
Mohammed further noted that the party’s National Legal Adviser, A.K. Ajibade, SAN, did not authorise or instruct any individual or lawyer to file the petition.
He specifically named Ochai Jacob Otokpa, Esq., as the lawyer purportedly responsible for filing the petition and challenged him to produce evidence of the authority under which he acted in the party’s name.
He said, “We are here to tell you that the PDP did not authorise this petition. That is not our case. Who instructed him? Who authorised him? And by what authority did he purport to act in the name of the PDP?”
According to him, the party had dissociated itself completely from the petition and would not recognise it as a proceeding instituted on its behalf.
PDP clarifies position on petition against Adeleke’s re-election