I’m still in Ogun guber race -Ex-speaker, Bankole

The former speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole yesterday said he was still in the race for the gover­norship of Ogun State in 2015.

Bankole said this just as the former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communi­cation, Mr. Dave Salako flayed the conduct of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary in Ogun on Monday.

The state chapter of the PDP had on Tuesday dis­agreed with the party’s Na­tional Working Committee that all the primary elec­tions conducted in the state so far had been nullified.

The Ogun PDP had contended that its primary election and congresses, which culminated in the election of the former gov­ernorship candidate of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) in the 2011 poll, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka as its flag bearer, remained valid and authentic.

But Bankole said con­trary to the action and posi­tion of the State Executive Committee of the PDP in Ogun, he was still aspiring for the ticket to be the par­ty’s governorship candidate in next year’s election.

The former speaker spoke through a group, Dimeji Bankole Move­ment (DBM) in a statement signed by its Public Rela­tions Officer, Kayode Akin­tunde.

The statement claimed that a decision was last Sunday reached in Abuja at a meeting between the PDP National Working Com­mittee led by its National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and Bankole, ex-governor Gbenga Daniel and Prince Buruji Kashamu where it was resolved that last Monday’s primary be suspended until certain is­sues had been ironed out.

Expressing shock at last Monday’s conduct of the primary election, which produced Isiaka as the PDP governorship flag bearer, the group accused the or­ganisers of the event of working against the inter­est of the party in the 2015 elections as well as plan­ning to cause confusion and disaffection between the people of Ogun West and central senatorial districts.