Opara failed to decline membership of Ekiti election committee, says Adeniran

The Professor Tunde Adeniran Campaign Organization (TACO) has reacted to a letter written by Rt. Hon. Austin Opara, a former deputy speaker, House of Representatives, entitled, “False Accusation by Professor Tunde Adeniran and Alhaji Shehu Gabam,” dated November 22, 2017. Gabam is the director-general of TACO.

A statement by the media office said it was “delivered to our campaign office (accompanied by a cover letter) signed by Dr. Ibrahim Umar, the Chief of Staff to the National Caretaker Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.”

The statement further said: “In the said letter, Rt. Hon. Opara wrote inter alia: Mr. Chairman sir, I wish to clearly without equivocation state that I never conducted the Ward and Local Government Congresses in Ekiti. However, Hon. Opara admitted that his name was published in a national newspaper as the Chairman of the Ekiti State panel but rejected it.”

The statement issued in Abuja quoted Gabam as saying: “I wish to affirm without any equivocation that our letter of 17th November, 2017 written to the National Chairman therein referred to, emanated from a paid advertorial in the ThisDay newspaper of Thursday 16 November, 2017 signed by the National Organizing Secretary where Rt. Hon. Opara name was published as the Chairman of the Ekiti State ad-hoc committee.”

“Our campaign organization would like to say that our statement and letter to the National Caretaker Committee is not a ‘wild allegation’ as described by Hon. Opara’s letter, but was based on the fact on the ground. It is not our business to investigate whether Hon. Opara rejected the appointment or not, when he did not deem it important to publicly decline the appointment either with a letter or through the media.

“The fact remains that his name was published as Ekiti State Panel chairman for the conduct of the Wards ad-hoc congresses.