Chief Olusola Oke
A chieftain of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Mr Ajayi Kola, has advised Chief Olusola Oke, the party’s supposed candidate for the forthcoming Ondo governorship election, to make his intention well known.
Kola, the Lagos State Chairman of AD, gave the advice on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Kola said that it was bad for the majority of the party members to know that Oke was the party’s governorship candidate on the pages of newspapers.
AD’s National Legal Adviser, Mr Kehinde Aworele, had last week said that the party’s National Executive Committee did not recognise Oke as its flag bearer for the Nov. 26 election.
NAN reports that Oke had in 2012 contested and lost governorship election in the state on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party.
He defected to the All Progressives Congress where he vied for the governorship ticket for the November poll but was unsuccessful.
He then decamped to AD and claimed to have picked its ticket for the Nov. 26 election.
Kola told NAN that nobody was against Oke’s candidature, urging him to go through the necessary procedure.
“What we are saying is that he should go through the normal way; if he wants to fly the party’s flag in the election, it is beyond two or three people.
“You do not make your intention known to party members on the pages of newspapers.
“We have a hierarchy; we have a national leader, a national chairman, we have the National Executive Committee (NEC), and we have the National Working Committee.
“They are supposed to be briefed; he ought to have met these people and not go through the backdoor.
“There are certain rules in the party’s constitution that the leadership of the party must iron out with him before he receives the nods to go ahead.
“He is a very good candidate, a good brand and a saleable one at that; these people will be of great assistance to him if he meets with them. Nobody hates him,’’ he said.
Kola also faulted the composition of Oke’s campaign team, saying that no member of AD was in the team.
He said that such an arrangement was neither tidy nor done anywhere within the political circle.
Kola, however, described Oke as a ‘big fish’ which every party would love and want to have.
Meanwhile, Mr. Akin Olowookere, who had been in the governorship race on the platform of AD, has said that he voluntarily stepped down for Oke.
Olowookere was reacting to Aworele statement that AD’s NEC did not recognise Oke candidature.
He claimed that criticisms against Oke was due to jealousy and ill feelings for his popularity.
Oke’s Campaign Manager, Mr. Bola Ilori, had also described Aworele’s position as a distraction being sponsored by opposition.
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