A frontline PDP governorship aspirant in the 2020 election in Ondo state, Hon. Banji Okunomo has said it is an insult for Arogbo/ Ijaw people to drag the House of Representatives seat with Ilaje in Ondo South Senatorial district.
Okunomo described the Arogbo/Ijaw people as interlopers in Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal constituency.
He admonished Ilaje leaders supporting anyone outside Ilaje and Apoi ethnic nationalities to withdraw the gesture, saying such was a betrayal of the Yoruba interest.
Okunomo, like the PDP House of Representatives candidate, Hon. Kolade Akinjo, hails from Ilaje local government while main challenger of the lawmaker’s (Akinjo) third term bid is the Ondo State former Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo who hails from Ijaw Arogbo in Ese-Odo local government.
But Okunomo who spoke at the PDP stakeholders forum at Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government opined that Ilaje Ese-Odo Federal Constituency belonged to the Ilaje and Apoi sub-ethnic groups of the Yoruba Nation.
The former chairman of Ilaje local government said:”It is an insult for anyone outside, especially interlopers and strangers from Bayelsa State to contend the House of Representatives seat with the Ilaje and Apoi people.
“This is a Yoruba state and it is only when Ilajes are tired and have something bigger that we can allow Ese-Odo to take Reps, and even at that, we know our friends and brothers, the Apois, they are the ones to have it and not some strangers from nowhere.
“This federal constituency is a Yoruba heritage, it is our heritage so those Ilaje leaders who are running after the APC are only betrayers of our common cause. We must ensure we keep this that belongs to us in Ilaje.
“By our arrangement in the PDP, we have given the Senate seat to the Apoi, so let’s vote for them and vote for our own, Kolade Akinjo of the PDP so that once and for all, we can stop the interlopers and stamp out authority in this federal constituency.
