Ekiti 2019: Count
Ekiti 2019: Count Me Out from PDP Secretariat
Vandalization- Ajayi
An aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the Ekiti
North 1 Federal Constituency of the House of Representatives, Hon.
Temitope Oluwatosin Ajayi has dissociated himself from the PDP
State Secretariat vandalization which occurred on Sunday.
In a telephone chat with Hon. Temitope Ajayi Monday, the
aspirant noted that his name was mentioned among those who
participated in the vandalized state secretariat, stressing that
the reports were not only false, malicious, wicked, but a
calculated attempt to tarnish his image and reputation built over
the years as he was not even at the venue where the appeal was to
be taken by the appeal committee
He said he would have ordinarily ignored the accusation but for
the unsuspecting members of his constituency who may be misled to
believing that he was among those that participated in the alleged
vandalization of the party secretariat
Honorable Ajayi said they had their screening on the 20th of
September at the party Secretariat where he was cleared and
congratulated by the committee but told to pick his certificate
later.
Hear him” I got a text message requesting that I pick my
certificate by 11am on the 23rd of September while appeal was to
sit on the 22nd. I got a hint of an issue on my clearance despite
having been cleared by the committee initially.”
He further explained that he picked the certificate from the
Secretary in the evening of the 22nd of September since he knew he
needed to put together an appeal.
He also averred that he stayed all night with his lawyer working
on the appeal for 11am next day and when he arrived at the Party
Secretariat, the place had been vandalized by unknown persons.
He noted that dropping his name among those who vandalized the
secretariat was not only charitable but demeaning of the person and
caliber of Honourable Temitope Ajayi since violence had never been
part of his life style.
There were several media reports that Ekiti State People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) Secretariat was on Sunday vandalized by
angry National Assembly aspirants protesting alleged imposition of
candidates by Governor Ayo Fayose.
The aspirants and their supporters staged a violent protest at
the secretariat at about 11.25 am chanting war songs and demanding
the conduct of free and fair primaries.
They smashed the louvre windows of the party secretariat in
protest their being denied tickets for the six House of
Representatives seats in the state.
During the protest, the angry aspirants and their supporters
beat up the Appeal Committee led by Mr. Kareem Oladipupo, and the
State Working Committee (SWC) members already on the ground to
entertain their complaints.
Speaking on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants, Olanipekun
accused the screening committee sent to Ekiti of doing the bidding
of Fayose to edge them out of the primary.
According to him, the panel allegedly screened them out of the
contests under the flimsy excuse that some of them defaulted in the
payment of taxes when such did not happen.
Olanipekun said it was wrong for the committee to have allowed
individual to teleguide them for him to have his way and ensured
that he imposed his candidates on the party.
He said: “It was bad for the PDP that just lost the governorship
election to be behaving in this manner. We were supposed to be
given the opportunity to test our popularity in the primaries
rather than resorting to imposition.
“Governor Fayose had earlier held a meeting with all aspirants
and told us to withdraw from the race and made it clear that the
candidates will be handpicked but we insisted that the primaries
must be held.
“Our intention then for insisting on the primary was that Ekiti
electorate are very sophisticated. If they see PDP as being
unserious by way of imposition, we may not make any remarkable
showing in the elections.