MINISTERIAL LIST TEARS ONDO PDP APART,MANY SINS OF TOKUNBO KAYODE,DEFENCE MINISTER

Ministerial List Tears Ondo PDP Apart

… As Kayode Defence Minister was dropped for Elegbeleye

…his many sins, + why PDP can not forgive him

More facts are emerging why the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has failed to forgive the suspended minister for Defence, Prince Tokunbo Kayode.

The state chapter of the PDP, through its Chairman and Secretary,Dr.Tayo Dairo and Sola Oludipe, had announced the indefinite suspension of the minister on allegation of anti-party last week.

The executive are yet to reverse the suspension of the Ikaramu-Akoko born lawyer turned politician despite all entireties by the national and zonal body of PDP.

The party leaders alleged the unholy alliance and romance between the minister, Kayode and  ruling Labour Party in the state, to the detriment of his political party.

Sources close to the party told the Sunshine VOICE that the party executives were pressure to take the drastic decision by the members of the National Assembly who loss their return bid.

The NASS members were said to have converged at Abuja and took the decision that they should pay back the minister over their woeful outing at the last poll so that he too can feel what they are feeling.

The state excos acted on the petition of the NASSA members over what they described as Kayode's inability to muster enough support for them during the just concluded general election. 

This move is to blockade the perceived renewed effort by the minister to retain his portfolio having been credited by some party leaders at the zonal and national level for been instrumental to the success of the PDP Southwest rallies.

Kayode was appointed by the late President Musa Yar'Adua  had served in various  ministries as minister from the ministry of Culture and Tourism as well as Labour and Productivity, until he was latter saddle with the responsibility of over seeing the Ministry of Defence by President Goodluck Jonathan, who retained him in the cabinet after the death of his boss.

But the happiness of the party leaders begins to withered as they loss virtually all the bye-elections and polls conducted during his tenure a serving minister.

Some PDP leaders who spoke under anonymity berated Kayode for the monumental loss of the party in all the polls as they believed that if he had played his role sincerely and politically it would have greatly impacted on the fortune of the party.

It was learnt that the minister did not play any active role in the bye-elections conducted in the state and won by the ruling LP before the recent general election.

Specifically, the minister was said to be nowhere to be found during the by-election conducted in the Northern Senatorial District, which the PDP candidate, Jimi Adedapo lost woefully.

They traced the  loss of the PDP candidates at the subsequent election held at Ilaje the backyard of Dr Agagu and the stronghold of the party equally shows the lack of commitment and disloyality of Kayode to the party.

Some Youths group also blamed the minister for the poor showing of the party in the National Assembly and House of Assembly elections.

The group known as the Ondo State Youth Leaders Forum said the ''non challant attitude'' of the minister to the development of the party was responsible for the crack within PDP.

The group, in an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan signed by its President, Elegbeleye Rasheed PDP aspirant who loss his State House of Assembly bid and Secretary, Kolawole Femi, said that the minister deliberately sold out the party to the opposition, using all the machinery at his disposal in preparation for his second term ministerial slot.

They alleged that the minister was negotiating with the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, to defect to the PDP before May 29, so that the governor could re-nominate him for the state ministerial slot.

'Tokunbo Kayode has not been a blessing to the Ondo State PDP. He has contributed nothing to the development of the PDP in Ondo State. He only gives money and contracts to his loyalists.

"He is responsible for the poor outing of the PDP in the recently conducted elections in Ondo state. Somebody who cannot deliver his territory to the party, he was only after how to retain his post," the group stated.

But the immediate past Secretary to the State Government [SSG] and a very notable political leader from the southern senatorial district, Barrister Isaac Kekemeke differs on the issue of Kayode's suspension as he accused the party leaders of losing focus.

Hon. Kekemeke who was onetime leader of opposition in the state assembly during the truncated third republic was quoted by some media report that he exonerates Kayode over the abysmal failure of the party in the last election.

He condemned the party executives of conniving and cabal against Kayode, why should he be blame for refusing the party to use armed soldier to rig the last election.

Though the state secretariat of the PDP in Akure is yet to revert the suspension order placed on the minister, but sources closed to the minister said he had been making frantic effort to get his renomination through back door.