Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction loyal to Senator Biodun Olujimi has said a letter allegedly written by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) recognising Mr. Bisi Kolawole as the substantive chairman of the party in the state lacks ‘authenticity’.
The chairman of the faction, Mr. Kehinde Odebunmi, said the authenticity of the letter was doubtful on the strength that it was addressed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mohammed Adamu and copied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party’s state congress was held on August 29, which produced two factional chairmen, with Kolawole emerging from Governor Ayodele Fayose’s faction while Odebunmi was elected from a parallel group loyal to Olujimi. Addressing a press conference in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, Odebunmi, who spoke for the faction, insisted that the letter won’t debar the faction from existing. He said the contents of the letter purportedly signed by the National Secretary, Senator Umaru Ibrahim Tsauri, were full of confusion and ambiguities.
He said: “Firstly, we doubt the authenticity of the letter purportedly written by the national secretary because it was solely written and signed by the national secretary. By my own understanding, any letter by any party to any federal agency is always co-signed by the chairman and secretary.
“Again, in paragraph two of the letter, the party owned up that it hasn’t conducted the ward and state congresses in 22 wards of two local governments. “If that was the case, why should they proceed with the state congress when there were outstanding? Are they saying the two councils are not part of Ekiti? They should know that you can’t build something on nothing. “Let me also notice that the letter was addressed to IGP and copied INEC. At what time did the IGP becomes the superintending authority over INEC?”