Nobody forged our signatures, Okunomo is our adopted governorship aspirant – Ilaje PDP Excos

May 8, 2020

4.6 min readCategories: Politics

21 Executive members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State have reaffirmed their early endorsement of Banji Ben Okunomo as their sole governorship aspirant of the Party from Ilaje Local Government Council.

They announced this in a fresh statement sent to Starnews NG on Friday morning, through their spokesman, Banjo Ikuenogbon, the Chief Scribe of the Party in Ilaje local government.

They said their reaffirmation of Okunomo as Ilaje PDP sole governorship aspirant becomes necessary in order to put the record straight after their attentions were drawn to a fake statement allegedly credited to Pastor Omotehinse Oladipupo, the chairman of the party in Ilaje where he purportedly said our signatures were forged.

The full statement reads.

ILAJE PDP EXECUTIVES, ONDO -STATE

                          May 8, 2020

For Immediate Release

Reaffirmation of Banji Ben Okunomo as the sole governorship aspirant from Ilaje LGA

We want to say without any equivocation that the undersigned Executive members of our party, PDP, in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, met on May 6, 2020, and resolved to adopt Banji Ben Okunomo, as the sole governorship aspirant from our local government ahead of the party’s primary election after we considered all the necessary issues of how Ilaje Local Government could produce the candidate of our party, PDP, and to eventually sack the government of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State.

This reaffirmation is necessary for record purpose after our attentions were drawn to a fake statement allegedly credited to Pastor Omotehinse Oladipupo, the chairman of the party in Ilaje where he purportedly said our signatures were forged.

Pastor Omotehinse, our chairman, will never descend so low to issue a statement on our behalf because he was not involved abinitio in our resolution. For the avoidance of doubt, he was among the 9 members of the Exco who decided to sit on the fence. He would not and cannot speak for us, especially, over an exercise in which he never participated abinitio.

The Public should know that our signatures were not forged. A particular aspirant is behind the rumour to discredit what we have done. The 21 of us with our names, signatures and phone numbers below, indeed resolved and agreed, to endorse Okunomo as the sole governorship aspirant for our party in Ilaje LGA. The remaining 9 members of the local government executive of the party including our chairman decided to sit on the fence for reasons best known to them.

Our decision was informed by the fact that before the Lock down, the Exco invited all the aspirants to a meeting and advised them to initiate talk among themselves for a possible pruning of the number of those aspiring to be Governor to one or otherwise that the Party would go ahead to do it on their behalf which was agreed to by all.

We noted with surprise that despite the closeness of the election which has spurred our neighbouring competitor into action to prune to one , our own indigenous aspirants remain endlessly disagreeing, hence the need by the majority of us to invoke our powers to endorse our preferred choice.

Twenty one out of thirty Exco are more than two third. Since we are the majority and the remaining nine Exco decided not to participate, we have chosen the man we know could win the PDP primary election and it becomes a collective responsibility by all the Exco in Ilaje local government.

Our phone numbers are available for anyone to confirm from us the decision the majority of us have taken for the interest of ILAJE NATION.

It is not a crime to have a choice. The expression our choice for Okunomo as our preferred governorship aspirant would not stop anyone who could obtain the PDP nomination form from participating in the upcoming primary election of the party.

Even four persons among the nine Executive members of our party who decided to sit on the fence are strictly behind our decision.

Our decision is not a court order or embargo that could stop any aspirant from pursuing their ambitions.

But as far as PDP Ilaje Local Government is concerned, we are for Banji Ben Okunomo.

Signed:

Leke Ajimisan, Deputy Chairman of PDP in Ilaje LGA. – 08035174758

Evg. Ikunogbon Banjo, Local Government Secretary of PDP, in Ilaje LGA. – 07031295080

Omoseyin Okunomo, PDP Youth Leader in Ilaje LGA. – 08054515260

Ogungbeje Romance, Assistant Local Government Secretary, Ilaje LGA. – 07034965590

Aladetan Olajide Jolaade, PDP Legal Adviser, Ilaje LGA. – 07069463519

Com Demehin Akofowo, PDP Local Government Treasurer, Ilaje LGA. – 08054822774

Hon. Tunde Ebinwonjumi, PDP Local Government Auditor, Ilaje LGA. – 08136533863

Farojoye Oroale, PDP Ex-Officio, Ilaje LGA. – 08077794494