By Banji Ayoola
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, emerged as the party’s flagbearer through a popular and credible process, his campaign organisation has declared.
This declaration, in a statement sent to The Radiance on Thursday by the Head, Media Research of Eyitayo Jegede Campaign Organisation, EJCO, Mr Samuel Fasua, debunked the insinuations being promoted by a faceless group in a section of the media that Jegede’s victory at his party’s governorship primary was unpopular with some party leaders.
The Eyitayo Jegede Campaign Organisation (EJCO) has put a lie to insinuations in a section of the media, that the emergence of Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) as flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recently conducted governorship primary election is unpopular with some party leaders.
It described as false, misleading and unsubstantiated, a statement credited to a group called ‘Vanguard for Justice and Fairness in PDP’ that the party is divided over Jegede’s victory at the primary election.
The campaign organisation said: “While we value individuals’ right to their opinions, we feel compelled to raise the flag regarding an allegation by this group that “Jegede is seen by these unhappy (PDP) leaders as…a follower of the ideology championed by former Vice President and PDP presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Though this group applauded the election of Jegede, describing him as the choice of the people of Ondo State, it neither identified the leaders that were unhappy with Jegede’s emergence nor stated the nature of Atiku’s ideology that Jegede would pursue.
“The group, as such, relied on these assumptions to declare that there is crisis in Ondo PDP, over Jegede’s emergence.
“But the truth of the matter is that Jegede emerged as the party’s candidate, having won the highest number of votes cast in the primary.
“Even, all his fellow contestants congratulated him, describing the poll as free and fair; and immediately after his victory, Jegede went to the homes of these aspirants to assure them that it was a shared victory.”
According to the statement, EJCO “however wondered how the group came about a crisis situation for a party that had hit the ground running, in its campaigns to win the votes of the people of Ondo State.”
It said: “We are now telling this group (though unknown to us), that the Ondo PDP is a united family.
“Shortly after the primary election, we held a free and fair party congress in which new executive officers emerged for the party and those who contested for offices in the Congress and did not win, congratulated the winners.
“Therefore, we urge that the Vanguard for Justice and Fairness in PDP, should channel its energies to selling the programmes of action of Eyitayo Jegede who is out to restore good governance to Ondo State, rather than ply the low road of presenting fairy tales as the truth.”
