The Oyo State Government on Wednesday gave reasons why the Peoples Democratic Party did not give Senatorial ticket to the Senator representing Oyo South, Senator Kola Balogun.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Taiwo Adisa, told The Network that the Senator who is the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports and Youth Development has problems with party leaders in his Senatorial District.
Senator Balogun, the vice-chairman, Senate Committee on Sports and Youth Development, had resigned from the PDP on Tuesday as a fallout of the party’s refusal to give him the Senatorial ticket.
The Governor’s Spokesman explained that the Senator failed to attend the meetings that were held in the process of selecting a consensus Senatorial candidate for the district.
Adisa said that Senator Balogun attended only one of the four meetings called by critical stakeholders during the consultations for the emergence of a consensus candidate.
According to him, the Senator opted to travel out of the country for the lesser hajj while the critical meetings were being held.
He said that Senator Balogun attitude left the party with no other option than to give the ticket to another person.
He explained further that the party was considering two persons: the incumbent Senator and the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Nureni Adeniran for the ticket when Adeniran pulled out for Joseph
Tegbe.
Tegbe, the gubernatorial candidate of the APC in the 2019 election defected to the PDP and was given the ticket.
He said, “He has problems with the leaders of the party in his senatorial district. He had also started holding meetings with APC leaders.
“The party leaders set up a process that they would do consensus to select a candidate. He attended one out of four meetings. Is it the person that is not around that the people will be voting for?
“So they picked another person.
He took the party for granted. He said he traveled to Saudi for lesser Hajj.
“He didn’t attend the meetings, he attended the first one. The next day he traveled and didn’t attend any.
“He bought form, and they were debating who to give between the chairman of Subeb, Dr Nureni Adeniran.
even though he was not in the ground to defend his position.
“This goes on until the APC gubernatorial aspirant in 2019 Joseph Tegbe, agreed to defect to PDP and Adeniran agreed to step down for him. They decided not give it to him.” Adisa said