The factional National Chairman of the Accord Party and former presidential candidate, Professor Christopher Imumolen, has declared the purported nomination of Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2027 election illegal.
Imumolen insisted that Adeleke did not emerge through a recognized or lawful process and maintained that Clement Kolawole remains the Accord Party’s authentic governorship candidate in Osun State.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, Imumolen said the primary election conducted under his leadership produced Kolawole as the party’s flagbearer, stressing that any claim linking Adeleke to the party was invalid.
“He had emerged through a process that we know is not a recognised or legal process. The faction that claims to have brought him into the party is not the faction in charge of the party as it is today,” he said.
According to Imumolen, Adeleke’s emergence was facilitated by what he described as the Maxwell faction, which he said does not control the party’s structure.
He explained that when the party became aware of Adeleke’s interest in joining Accord, efforts were made to brief him on the internal leadership crisis within the party, but those efforts were unsuccessful before Adeleke proceeded with what he described as an illegal primary.
“To save the party and to make sure that Accord fields a candidate that does not have a challenge after winning, a candidate that can maintain his position and his seat without any legal challenges, we had to stand up to the occasion by conducting a primary and producing Clement Kolawole for the Osun people and for the party,” Imumolen said.
Providing background to the party’s leadership dispute, Imumolen said the Accord Party held its national convention in July last year, where he contested the position of National Chairman against a rival candidate from the Maxwell faction.
He said he won the election with over 500 delegates and was duly declared winner, but members of the opposing faction, who were part of the party’s caretaker committee, continued to lay claim to the party’s leadership.
Imumolen said he approached the court not because he doubted his mandate, but to prevent the party from being perceived as unserious.
“At that time, we had two factions, and I did not want Nigerians to see the Accord Party as an unserious party. So quietly, we went to court for clarity,” he explained.
He disclosed that the court subsequently directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise him as the National Chairman of the Accord Party.
Imumolen maintained that following the court’s decision and the conduct of a valid primary election, Clement Kolawole remains the lawful Accord Party governorship candidate in Osun State.
