But Eyitayo Jegede Campaign Organisation (EJCO) has refuted this claim, affirming, “Jegede does not intend, either now or in the future, to become deputy to Mr. Ajayi.” AgboolaAjayi EJCO Ondo PoliticalParty DeputyGovernor
Many people believe that the party, which lost out to the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2016 governorship election, would reap the gains of all the political upheavals happening in the latter since Governor Rotimi Akeredolu came to power in 2016.
But the sudden appearance of the state’s Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi on the scene, exactly 30 days to primary, has drastically changed the political calculations about who gets the party’s ticket. In a remarkable move, the PDP screening committee reduced the number of aspirants from 19 to eight, though some willingly dropped their ambition; only one aspirant was disqualified.
Expressing fears of the unknown, a handful of the party’s faithful, especially those loyal to Jegede, accused the party’s executives and National Working Committee of planning to give Ajayi automatic ticket, or at least prop him up to win the primary. Aside that, rumours are rife that the party’s 2016 guber candidate Jegede has agreed to be the running mate to the deputy governor.
“How can he now come to our party and insist on running as sole candidate to the extent of nominating the chairman and members of the primary committee. Or is it the reason he hired an aircraft for the NWC members that will come tomorrow to receive him. It’s the height of insults. The national chairman assured all aspirants and members of the party that the NWC would conduct free, fair and credible primaries, urging them to discard all rumours about imposition or endorsement.
The state’s APC chairman, Adetimehin, had said: ”Since he has resigned from the APC, he must equally resign the office of the deputy governor because that ticket belongs to APC. It is not a joint ticket between APC and PDP. “The constitution says that for every governor that will contest, he should have a running mate and that’s why there is always a deputy governor to assist the governor. The governor picked Ajayi; PDP was not part of whatever they were doing when they decided to run with each other.
Within two weeks of joining the opposition party, Ajayi has become the reference point in the scheme of events, especially the backlash from other aspirants who see him as a threat to their aspiration. More so, political readers pontificate that he is in a better position to get the party’s ticket and give the ruling APC a tough contest at the poll due to his growing popularity, pedigree and financial clout.
In his words: “So, with his inability to have the automatic ticket, as soon as we got back to Akure after the screening, he sent about four different emissaries to four of us that he was ready to pay off our debts at a cost of N400 million; that is 100 million per aspirant, and he concentrated the talks on those of us from the South.
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