The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has disowned an election petition purportedly filed in its name challenging the outcome of the August 15, 2026, Osun State Governorship Election, which produced Governor Ademola Adeleke as the winner.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, made the clarification at a press briefing in Abuja, saying the PDP neither authorised nor endorsed the petition before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo.
He said the petition, identified as Election Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026, did not represent the position or action of the PDP.
According to him, under Article 42 of the PDP Constitution, the authority to institute and conduct legal proceedings on behalf of the party is vested in the National Legal Adviser.
He said the National Legal Adviser, A.K. Ajibade, SAN, did not authorise or instruct any individual or lawyer to file the petition on behalf of the party.
“We are here to tell you that the PDP did not authorise this petition. It is not our case.
“The party neither instituted, sponsored, approved nor endorsed the petition challenging the outcome of the 15 August 2026 Osun State Governorship Election,” Mohammed said.
The PDP spokesman identified Ochai Jacob Otokpa, Esq., as the lawyer purportedly responsible for filing the petition in the name of the party and challenged him to produce the authority, instruction or mandate upon which he relied in instituting the proceedings.
He asked, “Who instructed him? Who authorised him? And by what authority did he purport to act in the name of the PDP?”
Mohammed said these were legitimate questions to which the party and the Nigerian public deserved clear answers.
He stressed that until such authority was produced, the PDP would maintain its position that the petition was not instituted with the authority or consent of the party and did not represent its official position.
The National Publicity Secretary also said the individual presented as the PDP candidate in the 2026 Osun governorship election, Adebayo Adedamola, popularly known as “Fryo”, had publicly distanced himself from the petition.
He said Adedamola, while speaking on TVC News on September 7, 2026, stated that he did not instruct or retain any lawyer to institute a petition challenging the outcome of the election.
Mohammed consequently asked who instructed the lawyer to file the petition.
He disclosed that the legal department of the PDP was taking immediate steps to formally withdraw the party’s name from the purported proceedings.
“We make it abundantly clear that the PDP does not recognise Election Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026 as a proceeding instituted by or on behalf of the party,” he said.
The party called on the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Accord Party, Governor Ademola Adeleke, security agencies, the media and the general public to take note of its position and disregard the purported petition and its contents as an official PDP action.
The PDP also urged the appropriate authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the preparation and filing of the petition and take appropriate action against anyone found to have unlawfully impersonated the party or used its name, identity or legal personality without authorisation.
Mohammed said the PDP would no longer tolerate individuals appropriating the party’s name or constitutional authority for purposes not sanctioned by its legitimate leadership.
“The PDP will not allow its name, constitutional authority or institutional identity to be appropriated by individuals acting without the mandate of the party,” he said.
