Factional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ogun State, Segun Sowunmi spoke to AZEEZ OLORUNLOMERU on his pending Supreme Court case, the candidacy of Ladi Adebutu ahead of the 2023 general election, and what lessons would be drawn from the decision of the apex court.
What is the current situation with the governorship candidacy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State following the verdicts of both the Appeal and Supreme Courts?
Well, in Ogun State, we are still waiting for the Supreme Court judgment and depending on what the court says, there will be consequences. My case at the Supreme Court bothers on jurisdiction, which has already been compiled by the Appeal court, and I am confident I will be victorious at the end. In my opinion, if my case gets called at the apex court, it will go to the root cause of the entire problem in the party in the state. It will also establish that you cannot build something on nothing. I don’t expect any court in the world to allow this fundamental issue to be overlooked.
What efforts have you made to reach out to other disputants and possibly resolve the matter amicably?
For now, we are trying to manage ourselves, but it is unfortunate that the person who is temporarily feeling like a candidate of the party, that is Adebutu, has not made enough effort to call people together to figure out a way such that we can have some accommodation. What we see is arrogance and a winner-takes-it-all disposition. And I don’t know how far that can take us; there is nobody who wants to be treated with disdain.
However, we will live with the consequences of our actions. On my part, I have tried; there are witnesses to the evidence of me bending over. Now, we are at a point where the Supreme Court will determine the rightful person for the governorship ticket of the party in the state. But if they are late in coming, we will have to sit again and look at what is in the best interest of the state. Let no politician disregard the art of politicking, the art of politicking is the art of consensus building.
The party remains the party while the outcome remains the outcome and the franchise of selection in a democracy resides with the people. Ultimately, we will speak to our people in the language that they understand, inspire them and explain and justify why we are telling them to take certain actions, which would be in the best interest of the people.
Considering the two separate judgments by both the lower court and the Appeal Court in favour of Adebutu, are they no pointers to the fact that Adebutu is the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Ogun State?
We can’t ignore the fact that he is also an aspirant who is trying to say he is a candidate. To the best of my knowledge, there are three people in the race: Segun Showunmi, Jimi Lawal and Ladi Adebutu. But the bottom line is that our case has been tough, which means the Supreme Court is going to be the final arbiter. My case was very topsy-turvy; there were times when the court said they should vacate and also there were times when the court said they should continue. It means that the Supreme Court is going to be the final determiner.
My case is very unique. I didn’t go to court with multiple cases; it is just one case that I have at the apex court and the structure of that case is that no political party can be allowed to benefit from undermining its own rules and regulations, oaths of office and the grundnorm of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If that is the case, which we have won at the Court of Appeal, where we talked about jurisdiction, I really do not see any way we will lose because what we asked the Supreme Court to do is to ask it to make declarative order on the same pronouncement the Appeal court has made. If God helps us, and it is called on time, we will all learn very far reaching lessons from that.
Is your case not the same as that of Jimi Lawal, which the apex court just dispensed with in favour of Adebutu?
There is a slight difference. Jimi Lawal’s case is on delegates list while mine is that from the beginning, the three-three ad-hoc delegates could not have been rightly constituted. So, I have a feeling that they would have to interpret that when we come back from court. I have been in the Supreme Court and I have been there before them; it is just that the courts are occupied with a lot of cases. It would be interesting if the justices will expedite action for the benefit of jurisprudence and the deepening of democracy.
What is the position of the party in all of this?
I have never met a more nonchalant and near irresponsible leadership in our party. The leadership has pretended as though their friend whom they are over-pampering is always right and every other person who have contrary opinion cannot even be called, dialogued with and reconciled with. Therefore, nobody is going to convert a political party to a prison for any other politician. We will go to court and when we come back from the court, a decision that we need would be taken.
Have you not breached your party’s constitution by dragging it to court?
They can’t do whatever they want. The Electoral Act does not give them imaginary powers to do and undo, and it does not protect a political party from stepping away from its own constitution nor does it allow its officers to violate their oath of office.
Having followed all the necessary protocols of informing them, telling them this is the matter before taking the case to court, I have no other explanation than to say I’m particularly happy that the Nigerian judiciary is not the way that people like to rumour. I still believe that a great number of our judges have integrity.
