Date: 2018-11-14

A former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara, Iyiola Oyedepo, says he will not hand over to the "illegal" executives in the state.

Oyedepo told newsmen on Wednesday in Ilorin that the party's executives led by Kola Shittu was illegal.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Oyedepo, as well as a majority of the party's members in Kwara, had defected to the All Progressives Congress when Senate President Bukola Saraki left APC for the party.

He said: "It is a well-known fact that as from the first day of August 2018, I ceased to be the chairman of PDP in Kwara State.

"And since then, I have waited in vain that the party, PDP, will put its house in proper shape to elect a new executive of the party in accordance with the well-known provisions of its constitution." Oyedepo said he voluntarily left the office and would ensure a proper handing over of the party's properties. He said: "But there is the need to hand over to a lawfully and properly constituted executive of the party. "It is my considered opinion that the Kwara State executive of the PDP as presently constituted is illegal and cannot be the proper people to whom the properties of the party can be entrusted. "As far as I am concerned, the Kola Shittu-led executive is illegal and not properly constituted in accordance with the extant laws of PDP.

"Nobody in that executive can come forward to claim the properties of the party from me."

He advised the party to put its house in order before approaching him for the hand over notes. Oyedepo noted that when he left PDP, there were still some members of the executive that did not leave with him.

According to Oyedepo, the former youth leader, Alhaji Mahmud Dansofo, had called him several times with the instruction that he should hand over to a new executive. Oyedepo also said that there were still members of the then PDP executive still holding office.

He said: "I left many other members of the executive that neither resigned nor was the executive dissolved by the National Executive of PDP.

Something must be done to make the executive legal after my departure. "If that is not done, whatever structure is put in place by the PDP in Kwara State is illegal and I cannot do any political business with an illegal body."