Following the intervention of leaders of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), the suit filed by Bode Obanla challenging the leadership status of the former governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has been dropped.
The litigant, Bode Obanla said the Elders Committee and State Working Committee(SWC) of the party had prevailed on him to withdraw the suit in the interest of the party.
Obanla had dragged Mimiko, the state and national working committees of the party to court challenging the former governor of the state right to assume the position of the leader of the party in the state.
He said Dr. Mimiko could not assume the leadership status of the party despite the fact that he is the only former governor in the party. He said the former governor had neither contested nor won any elective position on the platform of the party.
But the leaders of the party in the state led by Dr. Omotayo Dairo have intervened, appealing to Obanla to withdraw the suit.
Obanla told reporters yesterday that leaders of the party have been putting pressure on him to withdraw the matter since the suit was filed last week.
His words : “For sometimes now, elders and leaders of the party have been talking to me about the case, but I explained to them that it is a constitutional matter.
So, the leaders of the party led by Dr. Tayo Dairo, in their wisdom, sat with me, we discussed it for hours, begging me to begin the process of withdrawal of the case in court in the interest of the party.
“After we have agreed, we later sat down with the State Working Committee in order to discuss the whole issues and we agreed that I should begin the process of withdrawing the case in court.
“What happened is that I am only doing that to protect the interest of the party, I don’t have any grudge against the former governor, I am just protecting the party and there must be a reward for the loyalty of members of the party.
“I pointed it out in the case that, a declaration that Mimiko is not entitled to be accorded the seniority and privileges attendant to his status as a former governor in his membership of Ward Executive Committee, Local Government Executive Committee, State Executive Committee and the National Caucus in that he was not a governor produced by the PDP not having won any governorship election under the party.
“So, he is not a governor of PDP, in view of this, we must protect the party and the constitution and 80 percent members of the party agreed with me on the points I raised in the suit. I have gone far in pursuing this case and I was ready to proceed. But the elders, leaders and members of the party have intervened and I see it that I have to withdraw the case in the interest of the party.givenno crisis in the party, we are one family and we must move forward.”
