SAN FRANCISCO, June 14, (THEWILL) – Demola Adeleke, the younger brother of the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke, has emerged the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Osun west senatorial district bye-election.
Demola, who had been cleared to contest for the primary on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defected to PDP on Tuesday evening following a disagreement with the party over the clearance given to Mudashiru Hussein to vie against him in the primaries.
Demola was all set to contest the primary in APC unopposed after Hussein was disqualified on Sunday by the APC screening committee headed by Sanusi Rikiji, speaker of the Zamfara assembly, on the grounds that he was still in active public service against the stipulated party’s guideline.
According to Rikiji, the party’s guideline stipulates that any aspirant seeking to contest an elective office would resigned from the public service 30 days before the primary but Hussein was the commissioner for cabinet matters in the administration of Rauf Aregbesola, governor of the state.
The disqualification was upheld by the appeal committee of the party. But on Monday evening, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC cleared Hussien to contest the primary against Demola.
Demola then defected to the PDP and contested the party’s primary unopposed on Wednesday in Iwo local government area of the state, scoring 343 votes as conducted by Chief Pegba Otemolu-led National Committee of the PDP.
Two other candidates, a former Minister of Youth Development, Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi, and a retired army colonel, Olayiwola Falabi, earlier cleared for the primary on Tuesday night, stepped down for Adeleke after he had shown intention to defect from the APC.
In his remark after the exercise, Adeleke assured his supporters that the PDP would win the bye election, saying “we shall coast home to victory by the grace of God. Nothing can stop us. We are winning this election.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed July 8 for the bye-election following the vacuum created by the death of the former lawmaker representing the district.
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