Ekiti 2022: Olujimi’s Group Denies Defecting with Oni to SDP

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

As the 2022 governorship race gathers momentum in, a group loyal to the Senator representing Ekiti South senatorial district on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ‘Repositioning Group’, has debunked the claim that it has defected with the former state Governor, Segun Oni, to the Social Democratic Party(SDP).

The group insisted that its members have resolved and coalesced into the PDP loyal to former state Governor, Ayodele Fayose, to work for the party’s candidate, Bisi Kolawole, for the June 18 governorship poll.

Oni, who officially defected to SDP, last Wednesday, had claimed that members of the Southwest Agenda for Tinubu (SWAGA) 2023 presidential aspiration in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP Repositioning Group have merged into a coalition that would power his ambition in SDP.

But a statement issued yesterday by the Chairman of the Ekiti State PDP Repositioning Group, Alaba Agboola, said there was nowhere the group met with Oni or his agents to discuss any grand coalition.

Agboola added that after the PDP governorship primary election that produced Kolawole as candidate of the party, groupings in the party ceased to exist, saying this accounted for why the major arrowhead of the body, Otunba Yinka Akerele, is now the director-general of Bisi Kolawole Campaign Organisation.

According to him, “Members of the Ekiti State PDP Repositioning Group are not political harlots who move from parties to parties, and as such cannot be part of any coalition with Oni, who obviously came to the PDP from the APC just for the purpose of using the PDP platform to contest the election.

“Most importantly, two aspirants from the Repositioning Group, Otunba Yinka Akerele and Alhaji Lateef Ajijola, who contested the PDP primary election, are fully with the party’s candidate.

“Therefore, members of the Repositioning Group are in PDP and in the party will they remain and work with other members and supporters of the party to win the June 18 governorship election.

“Segun Oni should desist from this name dropping that could mislead the public.”

It was, however, gathered that a faction of the Senator Olujimi’s group had resolved to work with Oni in SDP, thereby creating a cleavage in the group, even when the federal lawmaker, who is having a strain relationship with Fayose, is yet to give any directive to members.