Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has allayed the fear of all its governorship aspirants over the conduct of primary election to choose its candidate for the July 14 poll, saying all aspirants will take part in the primary election and that it will be a fair and transparent exercise.
The PDP also said all aspirants are free to officially express their intention to contest to the party leadership.
This is just as it said the adoption of the current deputy governor of the state, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, by some stakeholders can never stop the conduct of the primary or stop other aspirants from taking part in the exercise.
The party, which spoke through the State Publicity Secretary, Mr Jackson Adebayo, in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, said there was no need for any aspirant to entertain fear or see himself or herself as being shut out of the primary election that would take place between April 15 and May 15, this year according to the timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party, therefore, enjoined all aspirants to focus more on the primary rather than paying attention to the adoption of somebody by some people.
” Party members and leaders know that our party is disciplined and law-abiding. The Electoral Law stipulates the conduct of primary to choose candidates for elections. The electoral umpire, the INEC, has set out the timetable for the election and we cannot do otherwise. We want aspirants and party leaders not to allow themselves to be used for any sinister motive.
”What all aspirants who are really interested in the election should be pursuing now is strategies to woo delegates to their sides and be praying for successful outing both for themselves and the party in the governorship election,” Adebayo said.
He explained that supporters of any of the aspirants could also gather and adopt them as done by those of Olusola without prejudice, adding that what mattered most to the party was that all of them must prepare for the primaries because any adoption would not automatically translate to the candidacy of the party.
On the support of Governor Ayodele Fayose for Olusola, Adebayo maintained that there was nothing wrong with that as every member of the party had the right to support whoever he or she believes would be the best candidate for the party.
He noted that the governor, like every other delegate to the primary, would have only one vote.
The PDP spokesman stressed that all the aspirants were eligible for the coveted post, but only one of them would fly the flag of the party at the end of the primaries and appealed that all the energy being dissipated now should be saved to face the opposition who were hell-bent to wreak havoc in the state.
