Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State on Friday, staged a protest against the alleged move by some chieftains of the party to doctor the list of delegates for the party’s primary, coming up on July 22, 2020.
The aggrieved PDP members protested at Heritage Hotel, Alagbaka Akure, the state capital, the venue of the PDP Ad Hoc Committee meetings.
Specifically, the protesters alleged that the Deputy Governor of the state, Mr Agboola Ajayi, who recently decamped to the party, was attempting to bribe members of the panel to replace names of the delegates across the 203 wards of Ondo State to favour him.
The protesters also alleged that some of Ajayi’s campaign members, Dr. Kola Ademujimi and a House of Assembly member representing Idanre, Mr Festus Akingbaso, to have been at the hotel with members of the election panel while other aspirants were locked out.
One of the protesters said, ” We want equity and justice, we want this primary to be free and fair and we don’t want the committee to compromise the standard. That is why we are protesting. We don’t want anyone to cut corners, we want to have free and fair primary so that whoever wins will have our full support at the October election.”
The Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Zadok Akintoye, who confirmed the protest, said he could not authenticate the allegation against Ajayi.
However, the Chief Press Secretary to the deputy governor, Mr Tope Okeowo, denied the allegations against his boss, saying some people might be sponsored to malign Ajayi’s name. He said the deputy governor could not be a party to such an activity.
“The governor is not a desperate politician, he is a lawyer and knows the rules of the game, the allegation of the protesters is nothing but falsehood against the person of the deputy governor. I can tell you it is not true,” Okeowo stated.
