With the primary election of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in Ondo state gradually inching closer, the struggle for the governorship ticket of the major opposition party is gathering momentum by the day.
Aspirants for the party’s candidacy have already undergone screening at the PDP headquarters late last month by a committee headed by the former Governor of Ebonyi State, Senator Sam Egwu.
Unlike the ruling All Progressives Congress that is heading to its primary slated for Saturday, April 20th with a total number of sixteen governorship hopefuls, PDP is planning to conduct its internal election for a much slimmer number of aspirants.
Though seven aspirants which includes Sola Ebiseni, Honorable Agboola Ajayi, Ademola Akinwunmi, Bamidele Akingboye, Kolade Akinjo, John Ola Mafo and Bosun Arebuwa all purchased the nomination forms, only five were vetted to contest the party’s indirect primary that will hold on Thursday April 25th.
The remaining two were disqualified on the grounds of litigations surrounding their documents.
Regardless of their limited numbers, political observers believe there are just two contenders among them while others are mere pretenders who are either going into the contest to test their popularity within the party or will later collapse their political structures for other aspirants with better chances.
First contender
One of the two contenders is Honorable Agboola Ajayi, former deputy governor of Ondo State.
A grassroots mobiliser and political torchbearer, Ajayi is a name that rings a bell in the political space of the Sunshine State.
Having begun his political leadership in 1988 as a ward chairman of SDP in old Apoi Ward 1 at a relatively tender age, he has remained consistent in Ondo politics, winning elections into various political offices of the state.
In 2007, he was elected into the House of Representatives to represent the Ilaje-Ese-Odo Federal Constituency.
In 2016, he was picked as a running mate to the late former governor Rotimi Akeredolu and consequently became the deputy governor after they were both inaugurated in February 2017.
Things however fell apart between the two politicians following his decision to challenge the governor in the 2020 governorship election.
In the heat of crisis that greeted his ambition, Ajayi defected to the People’s Democratic Party where he contested the party’s primary but lost to the former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Eyitayo Jegede, SAN who was more grounded than him in the party.
Not done yet, the then-embattled deputy governor later decamped from the PDP to the Zenith Labour Party, secured the ticket and ran for the election under the reported guidance of former governor Olusegun Mimiko.
Although Ajayi came third in the election yet, he has remained a formidable force in the politics of the state since he returned to the leading opposition party.
With Jegede who has been a serial contestant in PDP out of the picture, many believe that the former federal lawmaker has every chance to clinch the guber ticket next week.
Second contender
The second real contender who has been widely speculated to give Ajayi a run for his money, clout and weight is Chief Olusola Ebiseni, former Ondo State Commissioner for the Environment.
Like Ajayi, Ebiseni has been around politically for a while and has remained in the consciousness of the people of Ondo State.
A legal luminary and renowned rights activist, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria is believed to be leveraging his popularity, grassroots tentacles and political strategies to snatch the party ticket on D-Day.
He had once contested the party primary in 2016 which he lost to Jegede, his erstwhile colleague in the executive council of the state.
As a spokesperson of Afenifere, a Yoruba Social-Political group that supported Peter Obi’s presidential ambition in 2023, Ebiseni was drafted into the political camp of the Labour Party candidate as the Southwest Campaign Coordinator.
He has returned to the PDP after the General Elections to contest the primary and realize his governorship ambition in Ondo State.
Ebiseni and Ajayi are currently traversing the nooks and crannies of the state, wooing delegates and emphasizing their suitability for the top job.
According to some PDP members in the state, either of the two contenders may emerge the party’s governorship candidate at the end of the primary while some of the “pretending”’ aspirants are expected to step down for any of them in the coming days.
