“My candidature stands” – Jegede

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The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) has again allayed fears that his candidature might be upturned as a result of the recent pronouncement of Justice Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to the effect that INEC should recognize the candidate of the Makarfi-led faction of the party, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim.

Speaking in Lagos during a fund raiser tagged, ‘An Evening with Eyitayo Jegede’, the candidate said he had not been involved in any suit concerning his candidature and that he was not a party to a recent suit at the Abuja Federal High Court.

Jegede, who was warmly received at the banquet hall of the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, where party loyalists and friends had gathered to raise money for him to prosecute his election, said having studied the case, he found that it was all about the 2019 general elections and not about his mandate as the flag-bearer of PDP in Ondo State.

He said, “I want to again re-assure you that I am the candidate of the PDP in Ondo State. I am not a party to any suit. I have not been sued as the PDP candidate and I have not sued anybody.

Our party, the PDP, which is a defendant in the case filed by persons that were not governorship aspirants or contestants, has filed an appeal at a higher court and I believe that justice will take its course.”

Jegede also noted that Ondo State has always been noted with peace and tranquility, stressing that there is no need for anyone to fret over individual suit with the aim to cause disaffection.

The candidate, who was visibly moved by the array of eminent indigenes of Ondo State and other Nigerians that came to support his aspiration, said he would consolidate on the achievements so far recorded by the incumbent.

According to him, “previous administrations have done their best to develop the state but I am promising you tonight that we will do even more.

“The shuttle buses arrangement for our pupils and students is a novelty that should never be abandoned. Parents in Ondo State no longer get worried with the need to pay for their children’s transport fare to and fro, while attending school.

“Again, the delivery of the mother-care free health delivery system in which what would have been maternal deaths had been avoided has to be continued. For instance, between 18 and 24 deliveries take place every day under the scheme, at no cost and regardless of whether you are an indigene of Ondo State or not,” he enthused.

Jegede added that if voted in, he would focus on not only infrastructural development but also on the establishment of big-time industries that will provide sustainable jobs for the teaming population of the unemployed.”

He said to facilitate this, he had designed an economic blueprint for reviving moribund industries and the establishment of a power plant to keep them going.

The governorship candidate noted that in terms of agriculture, Ondo State produces between 78 and 84 tonnes of cocoa at its season, to serve both domestic and international trading, with a promise to make the cocoa business a worthwhile venture.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the occasion, Prince Dapo Adelegan, said Jegede is dependable and purposeful and that he is a technocrat who would swing into action upon election.

Adelegan, who is President of Nigerian/British Chambers of Commerce and Industries, added: “There is a global recession now that has also affected the Nigerian economy adversely. What we need in Ondo State is a technocrat as governor, not necessarily a politician. Someone who would put the state on the path of economic progress.”

The Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, was represented on the occasion by the Commissioner for Finance, Chief Yele Ogundipe