By Miracle Ogunde
In preparation for the bye election scheduled to hold in Akoko North East and Akoko North West federal constituency in Ondo state in February 2024, following the resignation of the former Rep. elect, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo who was appointed as the Minister of Interior by President Bola Tinubu, the Ondo State Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Ikandu Kennedy Peretei has expressed readiness of the party in the election.
Speaking while featuring on a radio programme ‘Political Digest’, on OrangeFM Akure, the PDP Publicity Secretary also assured of the party’s victory in the bye election.
Speaking on the party’s readiness for the election, Peretei said “The elections are just a few days away, our team is already on ground in Akoko North East, Akoko North West, and that is the state machinery. The state campaign council was actually appointed for the purpose of the bye election.
“We’re not just prepared, we’re 98.5% sure of victory in that election. Because the election is not like every other election. The reason is that since 1999 since this present dispensation came on board, there has been a very rigid more or less a zonal arrangement between two local governments that formed that federal constituency; the Akoko NorthWest and Akoko North East.
“Now Akoko North East took the first shot in 1999 and by 2003 it went to the North West. By 2007, it came to the North East and in 2011 it went back to the North West. So it has been rotating seamlessly since then.
Speaking about the resignation of the Rep Elect, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Peretei said “Taking up a ministerial appointment is an elevation for him. And since he has been elevated the people decide to shift it to where it belongs which is the Akoko North East where Lekan Bada comes from.
Speaking further, he said “So it’s not like every other election because this election is peculiar. That’s why I’m very sure and confident that the PDP in the name of Olalekan Bada will come out victorious when the election is conducted.
Speaking about using performance as a criteria for electing a candidate in the bye election, the PDP Publicity Secretary reiterated that every candidate has just a term to spend whether they perform or not because it is rotary between the two local governments that formed the constituency.
Responding to why the PDP picked Lekan Bada as a consensus candidate for the House of Representatives’ seat, Peretei said “Lekan Bada is not just an ordinary politician, he was the Chairman of the Akoko North East local government and I can tell you with every confidence that of all political offices that can be occupied, that of the local government Chairman is the most difficult. It’s most difficult because the people know you live with them and see them at home and in the office, and all the problems that are in the local government are the chairman’s problems. When you get to the office of the local government Chairman it’s either you get destroyed or elevated. But if you’re lucky to be elected, it means you’ve done well with your people.
“For Lekan to have served as local government Chairman and be so unanimously endorsed for this position, it shows there’s something about him, his character and performance which the people are yearning for.
“That’s is why a committee of 20 was out together by the party in the federal constituency to screen and assess all that came out to contest the position in the PDP. Of all the 7 of them that indicated interests, the committee said Lekan Bada came first.
“However, some of the fellow contestants disagreed with the committee’s report and opted for primary election and when it was conducted, Lekan Bada got 36, while the person nearest to him got 26. If you put all the contestants votes together, they are less that Bada’s vote which was an affirmation ane confirmation that the 20-man committee did a very good job. Also the confidence the people have in him is overwhelming.”
While responding to the allegation of removal the party chairman, Fatai Adams in order to impose a candidate on the party members in the Akoko North East, North West federal constituency bye election, Peretei maintained that the allegation is untrue saying “To put the facts straight, the case of trying to go against the wish of the people was what took Fatai Adams out of circulation. Because if 20 eminent men of timber and caliber were put together by the state working committee to screen the contestants, maybe Fatai Adams had a view against the majority, but the working committee adopted the report of the committee set up to screen the candidates, while the former chairman thought otherwise. On man can’t be wiser than 20, so the NWC is queuing behind the committee’s report. So it was he(Fatai Adams) the out himself in the front of a moving train and it consumed him. There’s no apology for that, it was his own political miscalculation.
Speaking further on the disagreement of the National Working Committee with the dismissal of the former Chairman, the PDP Publicity Secretary stated that the party remains one at all levels of government, stressing that all the party leaderships are guided by the PDP’s constitution 2017 as amended.
“There’s no part of our constitution that states that we must notify the National Working Committee on activity or action that the state NWC has to take.
Making reference to the party’s constitution, Section 57 sub section 3, Peretei explained that “At every level of the party, that level has cacith to discipline officers at that level. The person that was disciplined was at the state Working committee level, so the action we’ve taken is in tandem with our constitution.”
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