Whereas Mrs Funmi Ogun reportedly rejected her nomination as Peoples Democratic Party’s Deputy Governorship candidate in Ekiti, citing personal reasons, it has now been confirmed that the national leadership of the PDP actually blocked her nomination.
She was said to have been rejected because she was a nominee of former governor Ayodele Fayose.
The Senator Iyorcha Ayu-led National Working Committee (NWC) rejected the nomination of the ex- commissioner for Works because her nomination violated the spirit and terms of the agreement the party reached with the two factions one led by Fayose and the other led by Sen. Biodun Olujimi.
The PDP NWC had arrived at a compromise with the two factions before the PDP January 26 primary that the camp that produced the governorship candidate would concede the deputy governorship slot to the other faction.
But ex-governor Fayose’s faction, which emerged victorious in the primary electiob that produced Otunba Bisi Kolawole, reneged on the agreement and nominated deputy governor, which the National leadership rejected.
A source at the PDP Wadata Plaza, the party’s national secretariat confirmed the development.
The source said Ogun’s nomination rankled the PDP NWC because it vitiated the agreement brokered by the party’s nationsl leadership between Fayose and Olujimi during the build up to the just concluded governorship primary poll.
When called on the phone, Ogun reportedly confirmed the development, saying the party hierarchy in Ekiti had endorsed her as deputy governorship candidate to the party’s candidate, Kolawole, and forwarded the same to the NWC, whom she said refused to act appropriately.
“All the stakeholders in Ekiti politics had endorsed me and forwarded my name to our national leadership, but they didn’t act on it. So, I have decided to reject my nomination for me not to be on collision course with our national leaders.” (with The Nation report extensively edited)
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