Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has denied any form of alliance with the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kennedy Peretei described the rumour as “a typical tale by the moonlight, often told during election period.”
He said “for the avoidance of doubt, we will like to declare to the whole world that the PDP has never sat down anywhere with anybody in the ZLP to discuss any merger plan, much less perceive any move or begging to make its governorship candidate step down.
“This is another typical tale by the moonlight, often told during election period,” he clarified.
Dismissing the claim that Jegede was being asked to step down for the ZLP governorship candidate under the rumoured merger plan, the PDP said it was laughable in its entirety and remained a concocted lie.
“How on earth can the duly elected governorship candidate of the PDP, the biggest political party in Africa, step down for the candidate of a bedroom political party, formed in the heat of political harlotry? God forbid.
“While the PDP welcomes other political parties to join the winning team in dislodging the present locust regime under the APC and install a government of the people, the PDP has never changed its identity and name and will never commit the sacrilege at the Ondo State level.
“Besides, the ZLP candidate, who is the current deputy governor of Ondo State, left the APC for the PDP, where he was magnaninously given a waiver to test his popularity by contesting for the PDP governorship ticket.
“He lost the primary election in a poll which he himself described as free and fair, and then, all of a sudden ran away from the party barely two months as a member.
“The next thing was that he had been picked by a tiny party belonging to a political godfather, where he got his needed rehabilitation to become a governorship candidate. Ever since, we have known little or nothing about his affairs,” he added.
The party similarly denied any meeting by any of it chieftains with former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Ondo State governorship election.
“If former Governor Segun Mimiko met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that did not in any way concern the PDP, as Mimiko is not a member of our party, and we had never been invited for any talk by the former President,” he explained.
The PDP, as such, urged the people of the state not to be distracted by any last-minute political ploy to cause confusion in their minds.