The Ekiti State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat was on Thursday taken over by the police following its invasion by some aggrieved members protesting alleged mismanagement of the party.
Led by a former PDP State Secretary, Dr. Temitope Aluko, the aggrieved party men chased out the State Working Committee (SWC) members and workers and took over the secretariat.
The members also alleged state exco of “sharing millions of Naira among themselves at a period the party was in coma and weak to make any serious impact ahead of the general elections.”
They also accused the state exco of failing to manage crises that erupted from the last congresses and primaries in the party
After taking over, the protesting party members locked the secretariat for over two hours before the men of the State Police Command arrived and took over the place.
Aluko explained that they carried out the action to “save the party from extinction” and to re-position it ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Aluko said: “We already have some aggrieved members of the following the alleged imposition that in the last primary of the party and we are worried as we are concerned stakeholders.
“We are here today to lock up the party secretariat, not because of anything, but because of some nefarious and fraudulent activities among our members.
“After the exit of our leaders Dr Ayodele Fayose, we found out that the National Working Committee (NWC) has not been responsible to the issues on ground.
“We are carrying out this action today after consultation with some of our leaders of the party and they gave us the mandate to go ahead until further directives of the party’s national leadership.”
Reacting, PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, said Aluko was not qualified to question the integrity of the state leadership of the party “having been expelled for anti-party activities.”
Adebayo said: “As far as I’m concerned, Tope Aluko is an expelled member of our party and he does not have moral standing and he is not qualify to query, question or throw a challenge on how we run our party in Ekiti.”
Police spokesman, Mr. Caleb Ikechukwu, a Deputy Superintendent, said his men took over the party secretariat temporarily to prevent breakdown of law and order following the reports the command received to that effect.
