The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday denied their candidate who claimed he did not win the election victory given to him, saying he had ceased to be a member before last Saturday’s rerun poll. The Secretary of the party in the state, Prince Yemi Afolayan, who addressed a press conference in Ilorin, said the PDP in Offa had earlier complained that the councillorship candidate had jumped boat to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which is now All Progressives Congress, APC. However, in a sharp reaction to the claim, the APC chairmanship candidate, Prince Saheed Popoola, faulted the PDP claim, say ing that the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, KWASIEC, list for the election conspicuously showed Mr. Afolabi Adewole Jimoh as the PDP candidate. “Anybody who had seen the list of PDP councillorship candidate will see that Mr. Afolabi Adewole Jimoh was conspicuously listed as the councillorship candidate for Shawo South West ward. He is number six on the list,” he insisted. But Afolayan, in his submission at the press briefing had agreed that though he received Offa PDP list for the election on August 19, few days to the election and that of August 26, notifying the state office of a “recleared councillors in Offa LGA,” it was the duty of KWASIEC to substitute the list for the election exercise. The PDP said it did not recognise Afolabi as its candidate in the election, describing him as an agent of the APC in the ward on the day of the election. Afolayan paraded one Kamarudeen Olagunju as the PDP candidate that won the election, threatening that the party would soon press criminal charges of impersonation against Afolabi. Meanwhile, Popoola who made copies of KWASIEC’s list available to newsmen yesterday said that the PDP knew that it could not substitute list on its own except the electoral commission, because the whole exercise was at the instance of the court, pointing out a similar request the APC made was flatly rejected by the commission. He said: “We enjoin any interested member of the public and the media to call for the court paper the PDP filed, dated February 22 2011, challenging the result of Shawo South West ward and see if Mr. Jimoh was not the applicant who sued our candidate; Adefioye Kayode.” When National Mirror called at the headquarters of the KWASIEC yesterday for clarification, the office Mohamremained under lock and key manned by stern-looking and armed security men who had occupied the complex for five days running
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 06:23:46 +0000
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