‘Jegede could have won if he came from different zone’

Kashamu cautions against planned suspension of Sheriff, others

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Buruji Kashamu, has disclosed that Eyitayo Jegede could have won the election, if he emerged from a different senatorial zone.

Kashamu said in a statement that Jegede lost the election because he is from the same senatorial zone as the governor, Olusegun Mimiko.

“We told Mimiko that after eight years, the people of Ondo State would resist the injustice of producing a successor from the same senatorial district where he hails from.

“It is not that Jegede was not a good material. He is urbane, intelligent and smart. We told Mimiko that the people would not take anything that would look like a third term for him and his senatorial district,” he said.

Kashamu also expressed dismay over what he called the plan by the Ahmed Makarfi’s faction to suspend Ali Modu-Sheriff and his supporters from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He cited the report credited to the spokesman of the Makarfi-led Caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye as disclosing the plot last week.

According to him, Adeyeye said the party would soon take disciplinary measures against Modu-Sheriff and his supporters for allegedly colluding with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to frustrate the PDP in the Ondo election.

According to Kashamu, Adeyeye had urged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) and all Nigerians to condemn the attempt by the Modu-Sheriff’s camp to pervert and delay the course of justice.

He alleged that Adeyeye further said that the Modu-Sheriff’s camp had confessed that it achieved its aim, which was to prevent the PDP from campaigning in the election.

Kashamu cautioned that no one should mistake the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on the party’s candidate as pronouncement on the national leadership crisis.

“No one is afraid of any sanctions as long as we know that we are fighting to protect the interest of our people. A political party is a congregation of people with a common goal but with various interests.

“In every political setting, people align and realign with the group where they feel that their interest would be better protected. If one group wins, it does not mean that it could seek to emasculate the other,” he said.