A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Umar Sani, has explained why Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke did not take part in the party’s primary election in the state.

Sani alleged that the governor deliberately avoided the process to create grounds for temporarily defecting.

According to him, Governor Adeleke opted out of the primary because he believed internal disputes within the PDP could prevent the party from producing a validly recognized candidate.

Sani alleged that the governor planned to defect to another party to secure a ticket and later return to the PDP.

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Friday, Sani, who chaired the three-man ad hoc delegates committee for Osun, said he personally supervised the delegates’ election in Osogbo.

According to him, the exercise was conducted peacefully, the results were uploaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal, and were officially acknowledged.

He said the party rejected such a strategy, insisting that all aspirants must contest on the PDP platform to preserve the integrity of the party.

Sani said: “Let me quickly tell you that I was the chairman of the three-man ad hoc delegates committee, and I went to Osun. I was in Osogbo, and I lodged in a hotel called DC Hotel, and we conducted the three-man delegate election, after which I returned to Abuja. It has been uploaded into the INEC portal. INEC has recognized it, and I received it. I am not speaking to you as somebody from the outside; I am speaking from the inside.

“And what happened is that Governor Adeleke does not want PDP to field a candidate. He believes that there is a problem within the PDP regarding whose signature will be recognized by INEC. So he’s trying to move to another party, and according to him, he would now get the seat, and then return back to PDP.

“PDP says no, we cannot do that. What we want is for somebody to run on our platform. Because what will the party look like if we have a platform and we do not use anybody on that platform? Then how will other people react to other platforms? They will run away also and give the same excuse—’let me go and get something from somewhere else and come back.’

“So, we said, no, we will have everybody; anybody who wants to contest must use our platform. And so that’s why we conducted the primary election. It was not hijacked by anybody. It was peacefully done. It was all over social media. The results were counted openly, and it was announced.”