Somtochukwu

Ajayi who defected from the ruling All Progressive Congress to the People Democratic Party contested the party’s primary but lost to Jegede.

Chieftains of the party within and outside the state
had impressed it on Jegede to consider Ajayi who came second in the primary after joining the party less than a month as his running mate.

But Jegede insisted he wanted a neutral person as
running mate and thereafter picked a member of the
House of Representatives, representing Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency, Hon Gboluga Ikengboju as his running mate.

Ajayi later defected to the Zenith Labour Party and picked the party’s ticket to contest for the October 10 governorship election.

Speaking for the first time openly on why he jettisoned all pleas to pick Ajayi as his running mate, Jegede while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Jegede said Ajayi could not have been his running mate because the deputy governor’s ambition was to become a Governor.

Jegede also explained that Ajayi was part of the “failure” of the Akeredolu’s administration that PDP is campaigning against.

When asked why he didn’t team up with Ajayi for a sole ticket, Jegede replied, “Ajayi chose not to be my deputy. His ambition is to be a governor under a political party. He left the APC, came to PDP, defeated in our primary, and went to ZLP.

“I took opinions from virtually everybody. People chose who became my running mate. When a choice is made we must respect it. One should not allow his ambition to override the choice of the people.

“All the policies that we are fighting, the pains we want to end are the product of Akeredolu and his deputy.

“He was in our party (as a member) for just six weeks. He is a very powerful person and humble, you cannot do away with that.”

Speaking on the South West security outfit, codenamed Amotekun, Jegede promised to strengthen the operations of Amotekun in the State if elected.

According to him ” Amotekun will stay without political influence. We must protect our people. He also assured the people of the state that he would reduce the tuition of state-owned tertiary institutions.

Jegede however noted that “funding of the institutions won’t be an issue if am elected.”

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