Adeleke’s victory cannot end Accord’s leadership crisis – Factional Chairman

The factional National Chairman of the Accord Party, Chris Imumolen, has said the leadership crisis rocking the party is a legal matter that predates Governor Ademola Adeleke’s entry into the party and cannot be resolved by the outcome of the Osun State governorship election.

Mr Imumolen, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, said the leadership dispute remained before the courts and would continue despite Mr Adeleke’s victory in the 15 August governorship election.

He said it was, therefore, misleading to portray the internal crisis in Accord as a dispute created by the Osun election or by the governor’s decision to join the party.

“The Osun election is an election. The Accord leadership dispute is a national party and legal matter. They are two different issues,” Mr Imumolen said.

“The Osun election will come and go. Whichever candidate wins or loses, the national leadership question within Accord remains a matter to be determined through the appropriate legal process.”

Mr Adeleke, the Accord candidate, was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after polling 511,067 votes, defeating the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, by 66,252 votes.

However, Mr Imumolen maintained that the electoral victory did not automatically settle the competing claims over who is entitled to lead Accord at the national level.

According to him, the leadership dispute had been in court since 2024 and would continue irrespective of the outcome in Osun.

He said his faction had appealed to the contending sides to resolve the dispute politically but insisted that, having failed to reach an agreement, the courts remained the appropriate avenue for determining the legitimate leadership of the party.

Dispute predates Adeleke

Mr Imumolen rejected suggestions that his faction became a spoiler in Osun because of its opposition to Mr Adeleke.

He said the disagreement within Accord existed before the governor joined the party and that he had previously worked to reconcile the competing factions.

“When I ran, I heard about faction, and the first thing I did was to call the two chairmen. I had a meeting with them, it was televised, and I settled it,” he said.

He was referring to his 2023 presidential campaign on the platform of Accord, during which he said he had succeeded in harmonising the factions.

According to him, the party subsequently operated without the division until its national convention in 2024.

Mr Imumolen said a national convention was held at the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja on 29 July 2024, where two competing claims to the national chairmanship later emerged.

He alleged that members of the faction led by Maxwell Mgbudem left the main venue of the convention and held a separate process in another room, where they allegedly produced their own result.

“We were all at the venue of the convention. The Maxwell Mgbudem faction ran away from the centre where we were having the convention to a room. They took INEC staff to a room where they wrote the result,” he alleged.

Mr Mgbudem’s camp has previously disputed Mr Imumolen’s claim to the national chairmanship, resulting in the competing leadership claims that have continued to generate legal and political disputes within the party.

Mr Imumolen said his faction subsequently went to court to challenge the outcome.

He cited an interim order issued by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on 29 August 2024 in Suit No. FCT/HC/M/11850/2024, which, according to him, directed INEC to recognise him as National Chairman pending the determination of the substantive case.

Mr Imumolen said the case had now returned to the Federal High Court and would resume when the court’s vacation ends.

He said his faction would not abandon the case until the courts make a final determination.

“I’m just saying I’m the National Chairman of the party, and I will make sure that the court decides. If the court eventually says I’m not, fine,” he said.

“The court is meant for any one of us to go if we feel we have been cheated to seek redress. That’s what we have done.”

Adeleke’s entry deepened the dispute

Mr Imumolen said the arrival of Mr Adeleke from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Accord complicated an already existing leadership problem because, according to him, the governor aligned with one of the contending factions rather than attempting to reconcile the two sides.

Mr Imumolen said he attempted to establish communication with Mr Adeleke after the governor’s entry into the party, but that his efforts did not yield the desired result.

He said former Osun Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola had contacted him around the period Mr Adeleke was preparing to join Accord.

“I said Governor Oyinlola called me and said, ‘We are coming to Accord.’ I said, ‘Wow, we are waiting,’” he said.

“But after they came, I was calling for three weeks, they did not pick my call.”

He said the disagreement eventually contributed to the emergence of parallel governorship primaries in Osun, with the rival structures producing different candidates.

Mr Imumolen argued that the development should not be interpreted as evidence that his faction was opposed to Accord’s success in Osun.

Rather, he said the faction was seeking to protect what it considered its legitimate political mandate.

“I have no issue with you,” he said, referring to a conversation he claimed to have had with Mr Adeleke.

“I told him, I said I don’t have an issue with you, but I am just here to claim my mandate.”

Accusation of working for APC

The factional chairman also rejected suggestions that his position on the Osun election meant his faction was working for the APC.

His comments followed his faction’s decision, shortly before the election, to withdraw support for Mr Adeleke and endorse Mr Oyebamiji, the APC candidate. The Osun chapter of Accord rejected that position and maintained that Mr Adeleke remained the party’s candidate.

Mr Imumolen said Accord could support different political interests at different levels where it believed such an arrangement served the party’s interests.

He said supporting President Bola Tinubu at the presidential level did not mean Accord would automatically support the APC in every state or election.

“For presidency, the two factions are supporting the APC. Even the governor has also mentioned it, and even myself, we have looked at the president’s policies, his mandate and the rest. We are pleased with it, and we are working with him,” he said.

“But we have candidates who are running for governorship, who are running for other positions in Accord, and we are not, in those positions, working for APC.”

He cited Abia State as another example, saying Accord had supported Governor Alex Otti, a member of the Labour Party, rather than fielding a governorship candidate against him.

Mr Imumolen said such political alignments were part of the discretion available to political parties.

“It depends on how political parties see the direction, and they choose how to move their political trajectory,” he said.

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Tinubu support separate from leadership dispute

Mr Imumolen also sought to draw a line between his faction’s position on President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid and the ongoing leadership dispute.

He said Accord did not currently have a presidential candidate for the 2027 election because the party had stepped down from the presidential race.

He said his faction would therefore continue to support Mr Tinubu’s re-election while simultaneously pursuing its case against the rival leadership structure.

“There is absolutely no contradiction between supporting President Tinubu and pursuing the Accord leadership case in court,” he said.

“Our presidential position is a political decision. The Accord leadership dispute is a legal and internal party matter. One does not cancel the other.”

He appealed to members and supporters of the party to remain calm and allow the judiciary to determine the competing claims.

“Nobody should attempt to settle the national leadership question through the outcome of the Osun election, political pressure, media propaganda or unilateral declarations,” he said.