TheCable

Ahead of the August 9 governorship election in Osun State, President Goodluck Jonathan has held a closed-door meeting with the former governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

Oyinlola is currently embroiled in a legal tussle over his position as the national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after he was sacked last year.

He has flirted with the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose candidate, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is seeking re-election in a contest with PDP’s Iyiola Omisore.

Aregbesola ousted Oyinlola as Osun governor after a legal tussle four years ago.

At end of the meeting on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Oyinlola said he remains the national secretary of the PDP, describing Professor Wale Oladipo ─ the man currently holding the position ─ as a “pretender”.

‎Oyinlola was accompanied by the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.

The PDP, encouraged by its victory in the Ekiti State governorship election on June 21, is mobilising support to repeat the feat in Osun.

TheCable learnt that Jonathan is making every effort to woo back those who left the party in the heat of the crisis last year.

Oyinlola was a member of the PDP faction that walked out of the convention last year complaining about the leadership of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who eventually resigned as national chairman.

Key members of the faction have now joined APC, but Oyinlola’s position has not been clear to the public.

Asked by journalists on his rumoured defection to APC, Oyinlola said: “All I am telling you is that Oyinlola in the face of the law remains the authentic secretary of the PDP anybody in that office for now, is a pretender.”

He said he was taken to the villa by Mu’azu and “we had some discussions as to how to move the fortunes of the party forward”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told a federal high Court in Lagos last month that it does not recognise Oladipo in a suit challenging the recognition of  Oyinlola.

INEC’s counsel Vilba Kintai said the PDP had so far failed to produce any court order compelling it to recognise Oladipo.

Oyinlola had been reinstated as the national secretary of the party by the court of appeal on November 6, 2013.

Dissatisfied with the verdict, his opponents asked the supreme court to upturn the verdict.

Oyinlola later filed another action at the federal high court, Abuja, challenging his suspension and failure of the party to recognise him.