As Ondo state governorship election draws nearer, there are strong indications that the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party is facing another round of crisis.
This is not unconnected with the choice of Mr. Gboluga Ikengboju as running mate of its candidate for the election, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede.
Ikengboju, a member of the House of Representatives representing Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency, was announced by Jegede as his running mate via Twitter on Monday.
Jegede said the choice of his running mate was divine.
However, Ikengboju’s choice has not gone down well with some members of the party who threatened to withhold their support for Jegede.
One of the PDP aspirants who lost to Jegede during the party primary, Mr. Banji Okunomo, has expressed displeasure over the choice of Ikengboju as running mate.
His campaign organisation made this known in a communique issued at the end of a meeting on Thursday.
The communique read in part, “The BBO executive session views with emphatic disapproval and absolute sense of rejection the undemocratic and unpopular dimension in which Jegede chose to foist the nomination of Ikengboju on the PDP as his running mate, in stiff defiance to all wise counsels to the contrary, portraying him as a rigidly conservative person that will always override superior majority view.”
They said a choice of one of those who contested the PDP primary and lost would have been better.
However, a former deputy governorship candidate of the party, Mr. John Mafo, while congratulating Ikengboju on his selection, said Ikengboju’s choice was a good one.
“Being a man under authority, I am duty-bound to respect the choice of our candidate. Moreover, I am using this medium to call on all and sundry to let us put the issues of the primary and choice of deputy governorship candidate behind us and work for the success of our party in the forthcoming election,” Mafo added
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