The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has vowed to sack the incumbent Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, from power in the forthcoming governorship election in the state next year, even as the party’s National Vice Chairman, Olorogun Eddy Olafeso, formally declared his intention to contest the election.
Akeredolu, who would be contesting for his second term as governor of the sunshine state, was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
But the PDP declared on Monday through its chairman in the state, Engineer Clement Faboyede, that it would sack Akeredolu and his party from power in the 2020 governorship election.
Assuring that his party is putting its house in order ahead of the upcoming election next year, he promised that the party’s primaries that would produce its flag-bearer, would be transparent, fair and just.
Faboyede made the declaration on Monday at the PDP State Headquarters in Akure the state capital, while receiving the party’s National Vice Chairman, South-West, Olorogun Eddy Olafeso, who had come to formally notify the party’s leadership in the state of his intention to contest the election.
Promising that: “Our primary will be clean and clear; there will be no brouhaha,” the PDP chairman noted that 17 aspirants had signified intention to vie for the party’s ticket.
Also, he said that the process of picking that party’s candidate would be done without rancour.
According to Faboyede: “The PDP now has about 17 aspirants. But I can assure everyone that the best candidate will emerge because we will ensure free and fair primaries.
“During the last primaries of the party in the state during the general election, we did not receive a single query. The ball is in the court of the delegates to elect a candidate that will be accessible.”
He assured all the party’s governorship aspirants for the next governorship election in the state that the party would provide level-playing ground in the primaries to be conducted by the party.
He promised a free and fair primary, and that no aspirant would be aggrieved.
Olafeso described his move to contest for the governorship seat as a rescue mission to salvage the state from the present administration led by Governor Akeredolu and the APC.
He said: “There is no government in Ondo State here. This state is the state of Ajasin, it is the state of Adefarati, it the state of Agagu and Mimiko. We are now witnessing a situation where students are paying from primary school level to secondary school.
He said “There is no government in Ondo State here. This state is the state of Ajasin, it is the state of Adefarati, it the state of Agagu and Mimiko. But we are now witnessing a situation where parents are paying through their nose for pupils in primary to the secondary school level. The tertiary institutions are far beyond the ordinary man.
“I am a product of the Awolowo era. I won’t have been educated if there is no social welfare program for the ordinary man on the street. They have abdicated their responsibility and they have stepped on the head of the history.”
He promised to turn the state around within a short period of his administration and called for support from party members to save the state from total collapse.
Olafeso would contest for the PDP ticket with the party’s candidate in the last election, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, his former running mate and former commissioner successively for Information, and Youths and Sport in the state, Prince John Ola Mafo, among 14 others.
He described his move to contest for the governorship seat as a rescue mission to salvage the state from the present administration led by Akeredolu and the APC.
Olafeso promised that urban renewal, quality and affordable healthcare and education would receive top priorities from the government of the PDP in the state.
