Ekiti 2019: Count Me Out from PDP Secretariat Vandalization- Ajayi
An aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the Ekiti North 1 Federal Constituency of the House of Representatives, Hon. Temitope Oluwatosin Ajayi has dissociated himself from the PDP State Secretariat vandalization which occurred on Sunday.
In a telephone chat with Hon. Temitope Ajayi Monday, the aspirant noted that his name was mentioned among those who participated in the vandalized state secretariat, stressing that the reports were not only false, malicious, wicked, but a calculated attempt to tarnish his image and reputation built over the years as he was not even at the venue where the appeal was to be taken by the appeal committee
He said he would have ordinarily ignored the accusation but for the unsuspecting members of his constituency who may be misled to believing that he was among those that participated in the alleged vandalization of the party secretariat
Honorable Ajayi said they had their screening on the 20th of September at the party Secretariat where he was cleared and congratulated by the committee but told to pick his certificate later.
Hear him” I got a text message requesting that I pick my certificate by 11am on the 23rd of September while appeal was to sit on the 22nd. I got a hint of an issue on my clearance despite having been cleared by the committee initially.”
He further explained that he picked the certificate from the Secretary in the evening of the 22nd of September since he knew he needed to put together an appeal.
He also averred that he stayed all night with his lawyer working on the appeal for 11am next day and when he arrived at the Party Secretariat, the place had been vandalized by unknown persons.
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He noted that dropping his name among those who vandalized the secretariat was not only charitable but demeaning of the person and caliber of Honourable Temitope Ajayi since violence had never been part of his life style.
There were several media reports that Ekiti State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Secretariat was on Sunday vandalized by angry National Assembly aspirants protesting alleged imposition of candidates by Governor Ayo Fayose.
The aspirants and their supporters staged a violent protest at the secretariat at about 11.25 am chanting war songs and demanding the conduct of free and fair primaries.
They smashed the louvre windows of the party secretariat in protest their being denied tickets for the six House of Representatives seats in the state.
During the protest, the angry aspirants and their supporters beat up the Appeal Committee led by Mr. Kareem Oladipupo, and the State Working Committee (SWC) members already on the ground to entertain their complaints.
Speaking on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants, Olanipekun accused the screening committee sent to Ekiti of doing the bidding of Fayose to edge them out of the primary.
According to him, the panel allegedly screened them out of the contests under the flimsy excuse that some of them defaulted in the payment of taxes when such did not happen.
Olanipekun said it was wrong for the committee to have allowed individual to teleguide them for him to have his way and ensured that he imposed his candidates on the party.
He said: “It was bad for the PDP that just lost the governorship election to be behaving in this manner. We were supposed to be given the opportunity to test our popularity in the primaries rather than resorting to imposition.
“Governor Fayose had earlier held a meeting with all aspirants and told us to withdraw from the race and made it clear that the candidates will be handpicked but we insisted that the primaries must be held.
“Our intention then for insisting on the primary was that Ekiti electorate are very sophisticated. If they see PDP as being unserious by way of imposition, we may not make any remarkable showing in the elections.
