TheCable

Segun Oni, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in Ekiti, says he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of “cheating”.

Oni, a former governor of Ekiti, said this on Sunday during a debate organised by Channels TV.

Responding to allegations of being a “notorious defector”, the governorship candidate said his decision to decamp from the PDP was not borne out of desperation.

On January 26, Oni lost the PDP governorship primary in Ekiti to Bisi Kolawole, the preferred candidate of Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of the state.

Kolawole was announced as the winner of the election after polling 671 votes to beat Oni, his closest rival, who had 330 votes.

The Segun Oni campaign organisation rejected the result of the PDP primary, while alleging that members of the organisation were disenfranchised by the process.

Oni then resigned his membership of the PDP on February 5, days after after failing to secure the party’s ticket.

Speaking during the debate, he accused the party of dishonesty in its conduct of the Ekiti governorship primary.

“I do not like cheating. I don’t cheating and don’t like people to cheat. If I see a party that has no respect for its own rules, I see it as not my type of party,” Oni said.

“I contested the PDP primary and it was supposed to be a secret ballot and the world saw how it became open to the extent that one man was being shown every ballot.

“I believe if the party meant business, it should have said no. If it aspires to rule Nigeria and put confidence in people, it would have said no.

“I detest cheating and don’t collaborate with cheats.”

Oni was the governor of Ekiti on the platform of the PDP between May 29, 2007 and October 15, 2010.

He was removed by a court judgment that ruled in favour of the then-candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Kayode Fayemi.

In 2014, he defected to the APC from PDP to support the second term bid of Fayemi, the incumbent governor of Ekiti.

In 2020, he returned to the PDP.