AP members supporting Olusola out to dupe Fayose, Aluko alleges

We have no alliance with PDP, chairman declares
Governorship candidate of the Accord Party (AP), Abiodun Aluko, has declared that his party members, who are supporting Kolapo Olusola Eleka, were out to dupe Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The former deputy governor said he remains the candidate of the party, despite the open support by the party’s Chairman, Mathew Odeoba, and Akogun Banji Ojo for Olusola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The leaders had on Monday dumped Aluko and backed Olusola as their preferred candidate, describing him as the right person to succeed Fayose.

But Aluko said: “I have a strong belief that these people only took the action to dupe Fayose.”

He alluded to a letter by Ojo and the party’s Director of Administration, Aina Olasunkanmi, which requested him to refund N65 million to him, being the amount he expended to mobilise as a governorship aspirant before he was outsmarted.

Aluko said the request was to extort him, since the party has no verifiable structure in the to buttress Ojo’s claim.

He said: “After my initial refusal, the national body said I should give him N5million, which I also rejected. Rather than paying such huge money, I would spend it in building structures for Accord Party, as I have been doing.”

In the letter entitled: “Reimbursement Request,” Ojo said: We request for the reimbursement of the expenses incurred in the establishment of Accord Party and building of the party structure in Ekiti State.

The former deputy governor alleged that the aggrieved party members made such bogus demand in their belief that he had billions of naira.

“If Ojo had spent as much as he claimed, why does the party have no structure in the units, wards and local governments?

“If his claim was right, why did he lost the ticket to Mrs. Margaret Ilesanmi, since she was the one who stepped down for me,” he asked.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of AP, Muhammad Lawal Nalado, has dismissed the purported rejection of Aluko by some party chieftains, as false and unfounded.

He denied that there was an alliance between the APC and the PDP in the state.

In a statement in Abuja, Nalado called on their loyalists to come out en mass and vote for Aluko, arguing that he has the manifesto to address the economic challenges in the state.

He lamented the anti-party activities that were carried out by those sabotaging the party’s candidate.