ONDO | Stop Spewing Rubbish against PDP – Sola Ebiseni Warned

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has called on Sola Ebiseni, a governorship aspirant in the Ali Modu Sherrif’s camp to stop all his utterances against the party in the State saying it is misguided.

 

Reacting to a publication credited to Ebiseni where he equated the illegal Ibadan primary with the valid one held in Akure, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Ondo State, Banji Okunomo, noted that it was wrong for Ebiseni to have described the party’s primary as illegal and undemocratic while also equating the State’s party’s primary with the scam that occured in Ibadan which produced Jimoh Ibrahim.

 

He stated that the mainstream of the PDP in Ondo State held its primary on August 22, 2016 in Akure which produced Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) as the  party’s flagbearer. He said the valid PDP primary election was not only democratic but followed all the legal procedures as stipulated in the party’s constitution.

 

Okunomo noted that an attestation to the legality and constitutionality of the valid PDP primary held in Akure is the manner in which the other aspirant, with which Jegede contested, Mr. Saka Lawal, accepted the result of the election and congratulated the winner.

He cautioned Ebiseni against over ambition which is making him to approbate and reprobate at the same time.

 

He observed that Ebiseni who initially left the recognised and legal PDP in the State and went ahead to pitch his tent with illegality is now describing the product of his illegal primary, Jimoh Ibrahim, as illegal. Can legality be borne out of illegality? Okunomo queried.

 

The PDP spokesperson described Ebiseni’s action portrays that of a desperate person who is only concerned about his personal gains saying it was unfortunate that Ebiseni could equate the primary of his illegal camp held in Ibadan with the legal and constitutional one which held in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

 

“Ebiseni’s actions portray that of cowardice and one who readily accepts defeat. If not, why did he fail to obtain the nomination and expression of interest forms which would qualify him to participate in the valid governorship primary election held in Akure?

“When Ebiseni was serving as Commissioner in the State for two consecutive terms under the present administration, and when he served as the governor’s nominee at the 2014 national conference,  nothing was wrong with governor Mimiko but the war started when he failed to secure the governor’s endorsement.

“Now, Ebiseni has the courage to describe the governor as an autocrat when all he ever wanted was the governor to pick him as the anointed candidate of the party.

“What we should not forget is that it is right and normal for the governor to have a hand in who picks the party’s ticket in the governorship election. It has almost become the norm as we are all aware of how a National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) also mobilised in support of a particular aspirant in the just concluded APC’s governorship primary election. That is not new.

“Moreover, our Governor is a political leader, recognised beyond Ondo State. He is even the Chairman of the PDP governor’s forum and a lot of us, including those who, out of over ambition went to pitch their tents with illegality, have benefited from his large heart and having attained this height in the political landscape of the country, would one have expected that Governor Mimiko would fold his arms when it comes to the issue of who succeeds him?

“Apart from the fact that the governor’s act in having an input in who emerges the party’s candidate in the governorship election is justifiable, the governor did a lot of underground work before taking a position which must have shown to him that Eyitayo Jegede is the most sellable of all the aspirants. Okunomo said.

The party spokesman said that it was not Ebiseni’s business to say that the PDP house was not in order saying the party has a very strong reconciliatory mechanism in place.

“At least, the events that keep unfolding after the primary election- the rate at which Jegede’s popularity is soaring and the magnitude of people’s support for him are positive signals.

“The problem really is that some people overrate themselves and the question that we should ask them is that if the governor had, indeed, picked them, would it have been a smooth sail for them as it is for Jegede? Ebiseni, like other aggrieved persons are free to return to the mainstream PDP, the governor is willing to receive them” he said.

He refuted the claim that the governor hired some aspirants to participate in the illegal primary saying the governor would never participate in or engage in any act of illegality.