June 06, (THEWILL) – Minor political parties are usually devoid of activities, but they come alive during an election period, especially when aspirants who could not fulfill their desires in the two major parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), turn to them for succour.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) registered 18 political parties. Apart from the APC and PDP, only a few other parties, such as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), African Democratic Congress (ADC); Social Democratic Party (SDP); Labour Party (LP); Accord Party (AP); Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Young People’s Party (YPP) are active during election time and fizzle out afterwards.
One of such parties, which has found favour among aggrieved members of the PDP and APC, is the SDP. Currently this party is mired in a crisis of leadership, with a former boss of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Dr Olu Agunloye and a former Chairman of Afenifere in Lagos, Chief Supo Sonibare, separately claiming to be its rightful leader.
However, while the leadership tussle continued, a former National Chairman of the party, who is also a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, appeared to worsen the situation by claiming that the SDP had been parading illegal executives since 2020.
Warning politicians not to contest for any elective position on the party’s platform, he described anybody claiming to be the National Chairman of the SDP as “floating on water.”
Falae said this when newly-elected members of the National Executive of the SDP in Ondo State, led by its Chairman, Dele Thomas, paid him a visit in Akure.
Other members of the national executive in attendance were the Secretary of the Ondo chapter of the party, Dr Sola Agboola; Treasurer, Mrs Rachael Ajayi and Publicity Scretary, Mr Remi Olayiwola.
Also in attendance were two former chairmen of the party in the state, Prince Dele Ogunbameru and Chief Korede Duyile.
Falae said the last convention of the party was held in 2016 and since then no national convention of the party had taken place.
“All I want to say is that as of today, nobody can claim to be a legitimate member of the SDP national executive, not one.
“The last election was held in March 2016. It expired March 2020. Anybody who is claiming to be national chairman of SDP is just floating on water, you have no mandate.
“There is no basis at all, whether it is Shonibare or Agunloye, whatever, my tenure was the only legitimate executive and it has expired,” he said.
Falae congratulated the newly elected executives and promised to look into their request to reconcile feuding members of the party.
He said that the party would have been a suitable bride with what was happening in the major parties but for the ongoing crisis.
Reacting to Chief Falae’s statement, the leadership of the party described it as “grossly erroneous and misleading.”
The party’s National Secretary, Dr Olu Agunloye, in a statement entitled ‘Chief Olu Falae erred’ said, “This fallacious and malicious mis-statement, although primarily directed to distort facts or influence pending court process, is very much unexpected from a revered leader like Chief Falae.
“First and foremost, let us take a closer look at the background of this matter in order to ensure maximum clarity as we put the facts bare on the table.
“This is necessary to show the public where Chief Olu Falae, affectionately referred to as Baba, has erred. We shall proceed to put the records straight in the interest of the ever-increasing members of the party nationwide and the public, in general.
“In February 2019, after serving as National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party for over 14 years, Chief Falae abruptly resigned his appointment seven days to the 2019 general election. He publicly announced this resignation and his retirement from politics.
“However, from ‘retirement’, Falae has proceeded to mislead the public and he has attempted to create a faction of SDP in his home state, Ondo.
“He may have finally teamed up with the same Shonibare group that castigated him for “misconduct and mismanagement” in a still pending suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja and with those who openly accused him of “impropriety” at an Afenifere meeting held in Akure to defame the SDP, his former party.
“It is noteworthy that Shonibare and his handful of supporters, all of whom had been sanctioned by SDP at one time or the other for misconduct and anti-party activities or for not falling in line with reorganisation and repositioning programmes of the party, have now taken advantage of Chief Falae’s old age and the fact the he has lost touch with SDP’s aspirations to lure him into placing his unfounded personal opinion in the public domain, as if he were a Court judge or INEC official.
“Accordingly, we wish to present the following points to set the records straight: Chief Supo Shonibare, who claims that Afenifere, the socio-cultural organisation in Yorubaland, had directed him to take over the SDP is relying on charges of mismanagement against Chief Olu Falae, a Deputy Leader of Afenifere, in order to justify his (Shonibare’s) case pending at a Federal High Court.
“INEC formally testified at the Federal High Court in the case brought by Chief Supo Shonibare in 2020 and 2021 that the March 2016 Convention on which Chief Falae based his own election was not covered by INEC.
” This could mean that Falae’s own national chairmanship was actually in the waters from March 2016 struggling to float, but perhaps drowning, until the October 2018 National Convention which came to his rescue.
“The October 2018 Convention presided over by the same Falae elected national officers, particularly those newly created by the new 2018 SDP Constitution and legitimised the appointments of the other officers, including that of Chief Olu Falae himself.
“Chief Falae presided over the ratification and adoption of the 2018 SDP Constitution at the National Convention of October 6, 2018, but Shonibare is now insisting that it is only the 2012 Constitution that is the valid constitution of the SDP.
” The same Falae, as the then National Chairman of the party, along with Chief Supo Shonibare, who was the National Vice Chairman, went to the Federal High Court, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court between October 2018 to April 2019, against Prof Jerry Gana.
“Armed with the 2018 SDP Constitution, Gana, Chief Falae’s friend of over 43 years, said,’ The Supreme Court upheld the 2018 SDP Constitution in its judgement of 29 March 2019 in the case of Prof Jerry Gana vs His Excellency, Donald Duke, Chief Olu Falae and others.’
“Mr. Dele Ogunbameru, whom Chief Olu Falae is now eulogising was summarily tried in a ‘parlour court’ in April 2017 in Chief Falae’s sitting room in Akure. This was because of a petition brought by Chief Korede Duyile, the then Ondo State Chairman of the SDP, against Mr Dele Ogunbameru, the then state secretary for insolence, fraud and gross indiscipline. Chief Falae, acting as the National Chairman and presiding judge, found Ogunbameru guilty and ordered him to prostrate to beg the then State Chairman, Chief Duyile. And the Chief closed the case.
“When Mr Dele Ogunbameru did not refrain from serial misconducts, Chief Duyile formally suspended him from the party in November 2017. Mr. Ogunbameru remained suspended from the SDP till December 2019 when he showed some remorse and was readmitted by Chief Duyile who then notified the National Secretariat about the readmission of Mr. Ogunbameru, but added that he was not fit to hold any party office.
“In June 2020, when Ogunbameru appeared to have fully purged himself of irresponsible behaviour, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the SDP appointed him as the Chairman of the Ondo State Caretaker Committee for 90 days.
“Chief Korede Duyile, Dele Thomas and Mr Sola Agboola petitioned against the appointment and later headed to the Federal High Court in Akure to ask the court to nullify the appointment of Mr. Ogunbameru. The case is still pending.
“In March 2020, when a member of the House of Representatives in the party took along Mr. Sola Agboola, also known as “Dr Shola” to the house of Chief Olu Falae for some intervention in a political situation in Ondo State, Chief Falae indignantly walked out Mr. Agboola from his sitting room, recalling that it was Mr. Sola Agboola who maliciously alleged at an Afenifere meeting in Akure that Chief Falae “collected and mismanaged funds from the President Goodluck Jonathan administration ”
“Over the intervening period, Mr. Dele Ogunbameru became engrossed again in fraudulent and anti-party activities and he was suspended by the National Working Committee of the party in April 2022.
“Now Messrs Supo Shonibare, Dele Thomas, Sola Agboola and Dele Ogunbameru have now enlisted the collaboration of Chief Falae, elder statesman and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation to give further voice to misrepresentation and mischief, with a view to defame or de-market SDP in order to satisfy their paymasters.
Agunloye therefore said that “The current actions of Chief Falae to cast aspersions on the social Democratic Party are completely unwarranted and strongly condemned. The public is enjoined to disregard the utterances of the Chief”.
Speaking with THEWILL, a public affairs commentator based in Abuja, Kayode Ogunmodede, described the situation in the SDP as sad.
“I feel sorry that a party that is supposed to be a third force is still sitting pretty on the same spot for years. That it is now enmeshed in crisis is a dangerous signal to those who have picked the party’s ticket for elections. It means after winning the elections, they may lose their mandates through the court.
“Leadership tussle is a terrible thing in any political party. But I think Falae with his position in the party in the past should be taken seriously. I therefore advised the party to resolve its differences before the coming elections.
“Sadly, I heard that Engr Segun Oni is pulling crowds in his campaign towards the June 18,2022 governorship election, but all these may amount to nothing if, at the end of the day, a man like Chief Falae says the NWC that gave him the party ticket is declared illegal by a court of law,” he said.
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