‘Makinde remains Oyo SDP guber candidate’

Suit or no suit, Seyi Makinde remains the Oyo State governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), insisted the state chairman, Mr Sunday Adelaja.
He said those against Makinde’s candidature are agents of destabilisation sponsored by the ruling APC government in the South-West state.
Adelaja said without any prejudice to the on going legal matters at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, he had to state the facts “for members of the public not to continue to be fed with false information”.
“Engineer Makinde joined the SDP in December 2014 but could not immediately join the governorship race and had to submit name of one of his aides, Mr Samson Aworinde, whose name was forwarded to INEC along other names to meet the initial deadline of December 2014.
“The list was withdrawn on December 12, 2014 as allowed by INEC guidelines and Makinde’s name consequently was filed to replace Aworinde who has also remained a loyal party member, working for the success of Makinde,” he said.
The party chairman said he was surprised that some faceless individuals could now go to town to peddle false information that Makinde was not properly elected to fly the flag of the party in the coming elections, arguing that as the party chairman in the state, the names of the two persons spreading the fake information and who were claiming to be members of the party were not on the membership register at the ward, local government or state level.
Adelaja also dispelled the claim that INEC’s substitution form was not filled to effect the change of candidate between Aworinde and Makinde, saying the issue was between the party and the electoral umpire and wondered how individuals, who were not party officials or INEC personnel could access the document.
The party chairman urged party faithful and supporters to continue to mobilise support for Makinde as he remained the authentic standard bearer for the party in the April 11 election.