The National Chairman of the Accord Party, Chris Imumolen, says the outcome of the Osun State governorship election will not determine who leads the party nationally.
Speaking in Abuja, Imumolen said the leadership dispute was a separate legal matter already before the courts and predates the Osun election. He said the dispute began in 2024 when he and other claimants sued Barrister Maxwell Mgbudem and others at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.
According to him, an interim order issued in August 2024 directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise him as National Chairman pending the determination of the substantive suit.
He said the order also restrained the opposing faction from parading itself as Accord’s National Executive Committee or conducting state and local government congresses.
“Nobody should interfere with the internal leadership crisis of Accord. This is a matter before the courts, and we shall pursue it to its logical and lawful conclusion”, Imumolen said.
He said reconciliation efforts, including an intervention involving former Osun Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, failed to resolve the dispute, which later spilled into the Osun governorship contest. Imumolen maintained that the election and the leadership crisis remained separate issues.
“The Osun election is an election. The Accord leadership dispute is a national party and legal matter. They are two different issues”.
He said the courts remained the proper forum for resolving the competing claims, insisting that the election result could not determine the party’s national leadership.
On the 2027 presidential election, Imumolen said Accord had stepped down from the presidential race and would continue to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election.
He stressed that the political decision was separate from the party’s ongoing legal dispute.
