The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has alleged the impersonation of the position of the State Secretary of the party by Dr. Tope Aluko at the ongoing military panel on the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State.
The party equally warned that whatever is recorded by the military panel in the name of Aluko, whom it described as an impersonator, in the involvement of military in the Ekiti State election, will render the whole exercise illegal and a charade.
In a statement by the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Jackson Adebayo, in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, the PDP said it was ridiculous that a non-member of the party could be admitted to testify in the name of PDP despite a widely publicised expulsion of Aluko by the party on July 31, 2015.
Adebayo explained that the expelled secretary had only demonstrated the traits of anti-party activities that led to his expulsion, adding that there was nothing objective or reliable that could be taken from him in this case.
He noted that Aluko, who testified on oath as principal witness for the PDP at the election petition tribunal, would only be confining himself to the wrath of the law by choosing to negate same after he had said the election was free and fair to the Supreme Court level.
According to him, Aluko and four members of the State Working Committee were expelled on July 31, 2015, while the National Working Committee of the party upheld the expulsion on November 4, 2015 via a letter signed by the National Organising Secretary, Abubarka Mustapha.
In the letter from the national secretariat of the party, the replacement of the expelled officers was also approved, with Pastor Tope Anjorin as the new State Secretary of the party, while Yemisi Afolabi was named as the State Woman Leader.
Other officers appointed by the party included Gbuyiro Sunday as the Vice-Chairman Ekiti North and Mojeed Azzez Apempe as the new State Auditor.
PDP stressed that it was appalling and shameful that somebody that was expelled from the party based on his disloyalty to the party and gross indiscipline could now be admitted as a witness before a respected military panel.
Adebayo said: “We want to say categorically that Dr TKO Aluko is no longer the Secretary of PDP in Ekiti State neither is he a member of the party again, our Secretary is Pastor Tope Anjorin, so anybody dealing with the expelled member is only doing so at his or her own risk, as well as dealing with an impersonator.”