‘Why PDP lost Ondo governorship election’

A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Nicholas Tofowomo, has said that the party lost the November 16 governorship election due lack of preparedness, a divided house and complacency by party leaders and supporters.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Tofowomo, a former senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, stated this, yesterday, in Okitipupa.

Tofowomo claimed that he was one of the party leaders whom Agboola Ajayi underplayed their relevance and influence with their teeming supporters.

He said that he was not carried along in the formation of the PDP campaign council in his senatorial district despite his readiness to work for him and the party.

The former senator said that the mass exodus of leaders and supporters from the party, including former Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his 29 associates from PDP, also contributed majorly to the party’s loss at the poll.

He said that the PDP’s governorship candidate did nothing to reconcile all the warring factions, adding that the result was the party’s poor showing in the election.

According to him, there is nothing to contest in the just-concluded governorship election, as Aiyedatiwa won ‘convincingly’ in all the 18 local councils in the state, with Ajayi losing even in his Ese-Odo council area.

Tofowomo said that he was the only Mimiko’s associate who refused to join the mass defection to APC ahead of the governorship poll because he was a staunch party member and for some reasons best known to him.

He added that he, his supporters and other party leaders were sidelined throughout the campaign period, stressing that he complained to another party chieftain, Dr Eddy Olafeso, about the situation but that nothing was done till the election day.

The former senator, however, said that he was not engaging in any anti-party activity, urging anyone with such information to come out to challenge him.