A former speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Kola Oluwawole, has asked leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to choose reliable and trustworthy members as ad-hoc delegates in the party’s November 8 governorship primary election.
He said such would help in producing a right and popular candidate for the party in the June 2026 governorship poll.
This stated this against the backdrop of a PDP governorship aspirant in the state, Dr. Wole Oluyede, purchase of the party’s Expression of Interest and Nomination forms ahead of the shadow election.
Oluwawole, who supports Oluyede’s governorship bid, spoke in Ikere Ekiti during the signing of the aspirant’s forms at a gathering of PDP leaders from the 16 local government areas of the state.
He said, “All our leaders and members in each local government, ward, here present you go back home and embark on serious mobilisation of party members to ensure that the 3 delegates that will emerge from across each of the 177 wards of the state are the ones to vote for and elect Dr Oluyede as the candidate of the party.
“And this should be taken as a very serious business and ensure that those to be elected as delegates, are people of integrity , trustworthy, who will not betray us on the day of the primary”.
At the event was the wife of the PDP governorship aspirant, Mrs Kemi Oluyede, who charged women present to continue supporting his husband and pray for me.
Other PDP leaders from across the state, including the former National Vice Chairman (Southwest) of the PDP, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe were also in attendance.
Oluwawole equally decried the 40 million naira nomination form, 10 million naira expression of interest form and administrative charges of 1 million, totalling 51 million of the party, saying it is too much at a time people are faced with financial difficulty.
“Sincerely speaking, the price of the governorship nomination and expression of interest forms of the PDP is highly exorbitant, taking into consideration that our party is not in power in Ekiti State. And in order for us to give room for qualified aspirants to emerge as candidate, they would have considered that the PDP is not in power at both state and the federal levels, therefore, the price should have been a bit lower.
“That is the concern of members who felt that it is a strategy by some individuals at the high level to frustrate or discourage Ekiti chapter of the PDP from actively participate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election. It is a ploy by the opposition to infiltrate and stop our party in the election through those who are one leg in PDP and the other leg in APC . However, it has been speculated that, the price must have been influenced.
“He has obtained the form now, but it is very necessary for us to append our signatures to it, and other things needed to be done as party members and his loyalists who nominated for the election.
“This work is a very serious one and we are at the crucial stage of it. This is because, filling, signing and submission of same, marks the beginning of the race.
“The adversaries thought there won’t be a formidable aspirant to get this form. We thank God for giving us a formidable, competent, experience, intelligent and vibrant gubernatorial aspirant in Dr. Wole Oluyede and he is going to win the June 20, 2026 governorship poll”.
He said the constitution of the PDP stipulates that, at least one of the 3 delegates to be elected from each of the wards must be a female. This is very important and should be taken seriously to guide against outright cancellations of the process in any of our wards.
Advising the party members to go on effective mobilisation, the education and enlightenment of the electorate, he said, “There is poverty and starvation in the land, and there is need for a change. There is need for us to put a kind of machinery in motion to elect people with good ideas, programs and policies that will alleviate the suffering of the masses.
The former speaker boasted that Oluyede will emerge the candidate of the PDP as the frontline and leading aspirant and win the state governorship election in 2026.
Also speaking, the spokesperson for the PDP governorship aspirant, Gani Salau and a party leader in Irepodun/Ifelodun local government area of the state, Hon. Martins Ajayi, said Dr. Oluyede is not a pushover and he is an aspirant to win in PDP and Ekiti as a whole.
Ajayi expressed confidence that the party primary would be credible, transparent and hitch-free and said the PDP is now more united than before.
Salau said the aspirant is on ground and by God’s grace will, on November 8, clinch the party ticket and eventually win the guber election in 2026.
