Deal that sealed Bankole’s return ticket: source Nigeria Tribune

MORE facts have emerged on how the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Dimeji Bankole was finally handed the ticket to fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives election of April 2011.
It was also gathered that there are underground moves within the leadership of the party to ensure that embattled governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was also allowed to contest in the senatorial election on the platform of the party despite the fact that the list submitted by his faction was not accepted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Sunday Tribune learnt from party sources that some highly placed members of the party from the Southwest zone met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, where they pleaded with the former president to allow the Speaker to contest because he is still young and needs more tutelage.
It was also learnt that former governor of Ondo State, Dr Segun Agagu, his Ekiti State counterpart, Dr Segun Oni and former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as well as the governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao- Akala were among the party leaders who met with the former president to plead the cause of the Speaker.
At the end of the meeting with Obasanjo, he was said to have assured the emissaries that he would do just as they have pleaded.
Sunday Tribune further learnt that initially, Dimeji was not expected at the Ibadan presidential flag-off because of the news that made the round that his name had been dropped by INEC. But he was said to have been assured by the party leaders that he would be given the party’s ticket.
It was, therefore, based on that assurance that Bankole arrived the ancient city of Ibadan in company of vice president Namadi Sambo.
Despite the assurances, it was gathered that Bankole was not so sure that he would be given the ticket and that may have been responsible for his very short speech at the rally when he was called to address the people.
Sunday Tribune learnt that because of the controversy the non inclusion of Bankole in the INEC list had generated all over the country, the party, at the rally, decided to do what it had never done since its formation by publicly presenting a flag to Dimeji claiming that it used the House Speaker as a point of contact to other National Assembly candidates on the platform of the party.
According to a source, “You know that in the PDP, it is only the presidential and governorship candidates that our party present flags to, we do not give other candidates. The party decided to publicly present that flag to the Speaker in order to tell the world that the speaker had been given the ticket.”
It was also learnt that accepting to give the ticket of the group which had been recognized by the INEC to Speaker Bankole did not come easy as the original owner of the ticket in Obasanjo’s group rejected the idea.
But after the intervention of Obasanjo and the assurance from Bankole that his interest would be taken into consideration, he stepped dow