No Plan To Rig Ekiti, Osun Elections – S/West PDP

The reinstated South-West Zonal Caretaker Committee of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the defection of the former governor of Ekiti State, Olusegun Oni to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying it will not affect the party’s chances in the governorship election. Addressing newsmen in Ibadan yesterday, the zonal chairman, Chief Ishola Filani said Oni’s defection is ineffective. “The former governor was not followed out of the PDP by his supporters and we are on daily basis receiving defectors from other political parties, an indication that we are very much on ground in the state,” he said. He expressed optimism that the party would win the two states, Ekiti and Osun, which were lost through judicial process, when the governorship elections holding next month and August take place. He maintained that contrary to allegations levelled by the incumbent governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi that the party was planning to rig the June election, “we are not rigging the
election, but we will deploy all our arsenals to win Ekiti and Osun states. “We are sure that come June and August when the two elections will be held, you will celebrate our victory in these two states with us. We have a lot of roles to play in the two elections and we are also preparing now how we will ensure victory for President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 elections”, he added. He lamented that the lacuna created by the non-functionality of the committee in almost one year had affected the reconciliatory gains recorded before they left office. The Caretaker Committee was reinstated through court judgement about two weeks ago after the members had resigned their membership in anticipation of the Zonal Congress in which they wanted to participate about a year ago.