The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Hon. Sikirulai Ogundele, has said that the party will not issue automatic ticket to any of its aspirants contesting for elective positions in the 2023 general election in the state.

Ogundele disclosed this at the PDP Stakeholders Meeting For Ogun Central Senatorial District held at the party’s Secretariat on IBB Boulevard, Abeokuta.

The chairman, who maintained that the party would not choose a consensus candidate,  said that it had become mandatory for contestants to go through the laid down procedure to avoid being denied the opportunity to participate in elections by the Independent Electoral Commission.

He stated that the procedure, which includes the process of declaring intentions, the process of moving round to canvass support and the process of going to the primary, must be applied before any of them can become the party’s candidate.

Ogundele said, “We won’t give automatic ticket to any of our aspirants, every aspirants should go through the procedure. We won’t want what happened in Zamfara and River States happen to us. We won’t want a situation where INEC will say that they did not go through laid down proceedure during our campaign

“Anybody who wants to be president from PDP has the right to show interest. Anybody that wants to be governor or senator has the right to show his interest and go through the process.”

Earlier, another member of the House of Assembly insisted that no aspirant from the party in Ogun Central would be given automatic ticket to contest in the next election.

The lawmaker said the party would choose its candidates for elective positions at based on the party’s mode of primary without disqualifying other aspirants.

“We are very happy that the electoral bill has been passed now and more than three methods of electing party candidates have been considered.

One is direct primary, another one is indirect primary and the third one is consensus.  Whichever that is achievable will be used,” he added.