Sitting Senator and Ekiti State Peoples Democratic Party governorship aspirant, Biodun Olujimi, on Wednesday pulled out of the governorship primary, saying the system had been compromised in favour of a particular aspirant.
Olujimi, who arrived at the Pastoral Centre, venue of the PDP accreditation of delegates for the exercise, expressed disappointment with her discovery hence her decision to pull out of the contest, describing it as “unjust” and “unethical”.
The aggrieved National Assembly member, who said delegates for four of the six local government in her senatorial district had been given to former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose’s group, said only 12 delegates could vote in her local government, Ekiti East while only 10 could vote in Gbonyin Council a total of 22 where ordinarily no fewer than 155 ought to have voted.
She said, “I thought it was very unfair, it was unjust, it was disenfranchising me because of my gender or because the party feels I have not done enough for it. Going forward from there would mean that I am condoning what is wrong.
“So I thought my best was just to pull out and I pulled out. I did not step down. They can continue with it, I will also internalize the problem, there will be some introspection, then I will take a decision”.
Olujimi said that the delegates on her side could vote for any aspirant of their choice, saying, “The other aspirants should talk to them. They can vote for aspirants of their choice and then we meet afterwards and take a decision”.
She said, “I had a lengthy discussion with Governor Udom Emmanuel, the chairman of the election committee and he too was not aware until he brought out the list of Ekiti East and saw ‘undecided, yet to be decided’ etc on three sheets of paper with only 12 names that could vote on the top sheet. On the other one, he saw 10 names that could vote”.
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