With the Ondo governorship election now about a month away, the Alliance for Democracy is still embroiled in a controversy over the eligibility of its candidate, Olusola Oke, after party officials disagreed over the manner the earlier candidate, Akin Olowokere, was substituted.
The National Chairman of the party, Joseph Avazi, had justified the choice of Mr. Oke as a credible replacement for Mr. Olowokere, saying he had fulfilled party requirements to hold the ticket.
At the wake of the emergence of Mr. Oke, a youth group within the party rejected his candidature, saying the party’s chairman and other officials acted contrary to its constitution in the substitution of Mr. Olowokere.
The National Legal Adviser of the party, Kehinde Aworele, on Saturday also rejected Mr. Oke’s emergence, saying the National Executive Committee of the party did not meet to decide on his candidature.
He said the NEC also did not recognise Mr. Oke as a member of the party, let alone elected to fly its flag in the coming governorship election.
He described the action of the national chairman as “reckless” in reaching a decision to replace Mr. Olowokere without consultation.
According to Mr. Aworele, the October 14 NEC resolutions remained binding, affirming that those who later revoked it barely 24 hours after the emergency meeting in Akure, acted on behalf of themselves and not the NEC.
“As at today, we have passed a vote of no confidence on the national chairman, national secretary and national auditor of the party and it is the NEC of the party that can make a change of that decision,” he said, adding that the NEC still recognized Mr. Olowokere as its candidate.
“We have said that Olusola Oke is not known to the party because he did not follow proper procedure of the party, so he is not even a member of AD,” the lawyer said.
“I can tell you that he is not a member of our party because he has not complied with the constitutional procedure of our party by which a candidate should emerge.
“I don’t have anything against Oke as a person; he is a nice gentleman and a member of my profession but he should not come through the backdoor.
“On the issue of his eligibility, I will not comment on that because it is pending before the Federal High Court, Akure.”
Mr. Olowokere has however, denounced the position of the Legal Adviser, saying he willingly stepped down for Mr. Oke to become the candidate of the party.
He said the incessant kicks against Mr. Oke’s candidature were sponsored by the opposition who are bent on creating crisis in the AD.
“We are standing for the good of Ondo State, on behalf of the masses we have provided a third force and an alternative in order to make sure that we dismantle the illegitimate tyranny currently operating in the state,” said Mr. Olowokere.
“That I was able to midwife the party…there is a lot of jealousy and envy. If somebody calls himself a Legal Adviser of a party, he knows how to go to court. You don’t fight or sue on the pages of media.
Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Oke’s Campaign Director, Bola Ilori, dismissed the threats by the legal adviser, saying “it is an unattractive side attraction. It is just part of the fun just to make it more enterprising.”
Mr. Ilori asserted that Mr. Oke is a member of the AD, noting that it was the work of his opponents to distract the party from making progress.
“So all these are parts of the drama that forms politics, politics is drama; it could be fun, it is fun. It is just entertainment, you have seen it before and you will see it again; more of it will soon come: there is no issue about that,” Mr. Ilori said.
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