Bankole Not Governorship Aspirant - Ogun PDP

Report by Olayinka Olukoya, Nigerian Tribune

The lingering crisis rocking the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reached cresendo, as the party denied the aspiration of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, as one of the governorship aspirants in the 2015 elections.

State chairman of the party, Mr Bayo Dayo, told newsmen in an interview with journalists in Abeokuta, on Sunday, that the party did not have any information on Bankole’s interest to contest for the governorship seat.

Dayo said the former speaker did not purchase expression of interest form from the party at the state level, insisting that Bankole was not one of the governorship aspirants that would be partcipating in today’s primaries.

“I am still saying that I am not aware that Bankole is contesting the governorship in Ogun State. The money we are using to run this party is enormous. Some people have been doing that for years. Somebody cannot just say because he has been to Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford, he is coming to lead us overnight.

“It is not going to happen. So, if you are contesting, you must come to the state secretariat and obtain an expression of interest form. Those funds that are given to us by the various aspirants are the funds we using for all these primaries and congresses. We do not have special funds for all these things. It is the money contributed by all these aspirants that we are using. I do not know anything about arrangement about Bankole,” the chairman said.

He alleged that the former speaker had abandoned the party since he failed in his re-election bid to the House of Representatives, saying he (Bankole) had been looking for “shortcut” to become the party’s standard-bearer.

He said: “If you want to contest the governorship of the state, it is only two months to election and two months to the election will you still be struggling when the aspirant should be going round the local government to tell the people what you will do?

“ I can tell you there is no shortcut to a good job. If you want to do a good job, you start from the scratch. You must follow due process. This young man is not following due process. He is only looking for a shortcut and there is none in politics.

“I can tell you today that whatever arrangement is going to happen, I am still the chairman of the party, I must know about it. Even if it is coming from our leaders at the national level, I will still at least, be an observer at whatever meeting to have a tangible discussion,” Dayo said.

Nigerian Tribune could not get the reaction of the former speaker, as calls put through to him were not going through.

Credit: Nigerian Tribune