The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede has explained why he did not pick Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi as his running mate.
Ajayi is the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) candidate for the October 10 election.
In June, he had resigned from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and joined the PDP, from where he joined the ZLP after losing the gubernatorial ticket to Jegede.
Many pundits had predicted a pairing of Jegede and Ajayi to battle Akeredolu, but that was not to be as the PDP candidate picked Gboluga Ikengboju as his running mate.
Ikengboju is a member of the House of Representatives from Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency.
Explaining why he did not pick Ajayi as running mate, Jegede said the deputy governor’s ambition was to be governor.
He further explained that the deputy governor represented a part of the failure of the Rotimi Akeredolu administration that he was campaigning against.
The PDP candidate stated this in an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“Ajayi chose not to be my deputy. His ambition is to be a governor under a political party. He left the APC, came to PDP, defeated in our primary, and went to ZLP.
“I took opinions from virtually everybody. People chose who became my running mate. When a choice is made we must respect it. One should not allow his ambition to override the choice of the people.
“All the policies that we are fighting, the pains we want to end are the product of Akeredolu and his deputy. He was in our party (as a member) for just six weeks. He is a very powerful person and humble, you cannot do away with that,” Jegede said.
The PDP candidate vowed to reinvigorate the Amotekun Corps to protect the citizenry and reduce the tuition of state-owned tertiary institutions.
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