Agboola Ajayi, the deputy
governor of Ondo State, is expected to officially announce his move to the
Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and will be adopted as the candidate of the party for
the October 10 governorship election, multiple sources close to Mr Ajayi and
the ZLP have told this newspaper.
It was gathered that Mr
Ajayi who lost the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket to Eyitayo Jegede, has
completed plans to join ZLP having met with state and national leaders of the
party.
One of those who is said to have
endorsed Mr Ajayi is a former governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko.
Mr Mimiko is the leader of the
ZLP in Ondo. He was adopted as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2019
general elections but suspended his presidential candidacy to run for senator
in Ondo West. He lost the senatorial election.
Three associates of Mr Ajayi and
two of Mr Mimiko confirmed that both parties held a series of meetings, mainly
in Abuja, which ended on Wednesday with a resolution that Mr Ajayi will be
announced next week as the ZLP candidate.
The officials asked not to be
named because they were not authorised to talk to the media and a formal
announcement was yet tot be made.
“The deputy governor returned
from Abuja yesterday (Wednesday), he has made all consultation with leaders of
the party and he will unveil his new party before Monday,” an aide who spoke
under anonymity disclosed.
Another close associate of Mr
Ajayi disclosed that “it is true that he’s moving to ZLP because the
party has existing structure in the state. We want to play on Mimiko’s template
and populate it. There’s still room for substitution of names with INEC. The
party will just withdraw the name of the person put there as a decoration. We
expect the deputy governor to officially announce before next Monday.”
Mr Ajayi’s name would be used to
replace that of the governorship candidate of ZLP, Rotimi Benjamin, this
newspaper learnt.
Such substitution is still
allowed now based on the timetable released by the electoral commission, INEC.
When contacted, the Chief Press
Secretary to the deputy governor, Tope Okeowo, did not deny nor confirm the
development.
The State Chairman of ZLP, Joseph
Akinlaja, is yet to respond to enquiries as of the time of filing
this report.
A three-horse race?
Mr Ajayi’s ZLP candidacy is
expected to increase to three, the major candidates for the October 10
election.
Although INEC has cleared 17
parties for the election, it was expected to be a two-horse race between Mr
Jegede of the PDP and incumbent governor Rotimi Akeredolu of the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Ajayi, who recently decamped
from the APC to the PDP and now to the ZLP, will now be expected to challenge
his former allies for the governorship position.
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