A political pressure group in Ekiti state, Ekiti Good Governance Group (EGGG), has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of reducing governance to trivialities and makes beliefs.
It said the president was actually the one responsible for the procurement of nomination forms for 18 governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to create the impression that the party was popular in the state.
In a statement issued yesterday in Ado Ekiti by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Taiwo Ojo, the group alleged that the PDP had no credible candidate that could dislodge Governor Kayode Fayemi.
But in a swift reaction, the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, said it was “laughable, fallacious and ridiculous” for the group to have wrongly assumed that Jonathan had funded the exercise he described as “purely a party affair.”
Oluwawole said “the fact that 18 out of 33 that showed interests had procured the form shows that the PDP is vibrant and popular in Ekiti. In fact, we are the party in waiting. But this is an affront to the president that he had a hand in what should be expected to be a party issue.”
The group alleged that “the presidency promised to give all the PDP governorship aspirants N25 million in return if they could purchase the nomination and expression of interest forms which amount is pegged at N11 million.”
It said: “Their plan is to create an aura of acceptance to the public. They erroneously assume that if many aspirants could obtain the nomination forms, it would create the impression that the PDP ticket is competitive, even when all of them know that the party has no chances in the June 21 election.”
