Ekiti PDP’s unending crisis

The seemingly intractable crisis rocking the Ekiti State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is far from being over. The camps of the two key leaders, Ayodele Fayose and Senator Biodun Olujimi, have refused to sheathe their swords. Correspondent RASAQ IBRAHIM reports

 

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has been enmeshed in crisis for a long time. The end of the feud between former governor Ayodele Fayose and Senator Biodun Olujimi, who are the prime dramatis personae in the struggle for political relevance and space seem illusive.

The lingering rift between the camps has continued unabated. The cleavage has continued to take its toll on the party, with members defecting on daily basis to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Others that are yet to make up their minds have maintained a siddon look attitude, which translates to indifference.

Tracing the trajectory of the crisis, political observers said it started when Fayose brazenly endorsed his former deputy, Prof Kolapo Olusola, as the party’s candidate in the last governorship election, even before the party primary was held.

This action greatly incensed some PDP bigwigs who had hoped for a free, fair and credible primary to test their popularity and influence. They kicked against the alleged impunity on the part of the governor.

The aggrieved aspirants alerted the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to call Fayose to order, as his action was capable of further splitting the party which was already in disarray at the time.

In spite of the efforts made by the party’s national leadership to broker truce among the contending forces by conducting what appeared like a free and fair primary, instead, the gulf became widened among the heavyweights creating centrifugal force ripping the party apart.

The aggrieved aspirants, including former Minister of Work, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Senator Biodun Olujimi, former Deputy Governors Sikiru Lawal and Bisi Omoyeni, former Secretary to the State Government, Ambassador Dare Bejide, and former Attorney General Ajayi Owoseni, disagreed with Fayose.

The shadow election raised a lot of dust as Lawal, Bejide, Omoyeni with their supporters left the PDP for different political parties to realise their aspirations.

Adeyeye waited till the primary was conducted but eventually joined the APC to team up with the candidate of the opposition party, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. Of all the aggrieved members, only Olujimi stayed behind. As a result, Fayose’s anointed candidate lost the governorship election.

After the election, Olujimi who had emerged as the Senate Minority Leader, due to the defection of Senator Godswill Akpabio to the APC invariably became the leader of the party in Southwest, as the highest-ranking PDP member. Nevertheless, Fayose refused to recognize her. This further widened the crack within the party.

During the build-up to the 2019 general elections, Fayose who was the Southwest coordinator of the Atiku Campaign Organisation was nowhere to be found in Ekiti throughout the campaign period, except when he inaugurated a parallel campaign council, when Atiku visited the state for campaign and when he openly campaigned against Senator Olujimi.

In a video circulated on various social media platforms and on a programme on Our Peoples’ FM 104.1, he campaigned against Olujimi on the eve of the February 23 National Assembly polls.

In the video, he said: “Ekiti Kete o, my name is Ayo Peter Fayose, the Osokomole. My beloved teachers, my beloved workers, okada riders and entire people of Ekiti State, I commend to you, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, our President-in-waiting. I commend to you all candidates of PDP in Ekiti, except Senator Abiodun Olujimi.

“That is, we must not return Olujimi to the Senate. I know you will do exactly what I ask you to do. I love you and may God bless you. This is Act 1, Scene 1.” This was Fayose’s vitriolic attack on Olujimi before the election, which fueled the animosity between the duo.

Due to the intense internal crisis, PDP was humiliated in the last general election as the party lost six House of Representatives seats, 26 Assembly seats and three senatorial seats to the APC. Senator Olujimi, however, returned after a legal battle.

The party’s stakeholders in Ekiti blamed Fayose for the electoral fatality suffered in the elections, claiming his dictatorial tendencies and high handedness caused the party’s woes.

They further added that Fayose’s penchant for divide and rule tactics to maximize his selfish interest destabilize the State Assembly, thus, snowballed into the party losing control of the Local Government.

The stakeholders comprised of former House of Representatives, serving house of assembly members and party members across the 16 local governments of 177 wards in Ekiti.

They made this displeasure known in a report jointly signed by the PDP Ekiti State Repositioning Committee Chairman and Secretary Kehinde Odebunmi and Oladipo Ebenezer respectively.

The stakeholders said the party’s State Working Committee was a titular head who was never in control of the party’s affairs but being tele-guided by the former governor.

Since then, Fayose had left the state for Lagos except when he was summoned by the Ekiti State House of Assembly over allegations of financial impropriety while in office. He did not even call for a reconciliation to even evaluate and assess what could have caused the downfall of the party in the elections.

Expectedly, when Olujimi won at the Appeal Court against Adeyeye and was declared the senator representing Ekiti South district, Fayose kept silence and refused to congratulate on her victory.

For almost four months, the PDP was like a sheep without a shepherd until Olujimi took over the responsibility, to salvage the party from extinction.

She gave moral, financial and spiritual support to the party, as well as provided the needed leadership for the opposition party to remain relevant in the state.

Read Also: APC crisis: ‘Lawan, other interested parties, can’t lead reconciliation c’ttee’

 

It was on this basis the Chief Gboyega Oguntuase-led State Working Committee shifted loyalty from Fayose to Senator Olujimi.

Political observers opined that the turn of events in Ekiti PDP forced Fayose to hurriedly return to the state and began moves to save his faction from being humiliated.

But, the crack within the opposition party widened on Tuesday, December 10 when the former governor clashed with Oguntuase-led State Working Committee over a proposed constituted meeting he called.

Oguntuwase had earlier declared seven days of mourning effective from Monday, December 9 for a party member who was killed and four others who got injured at Ikere-Ekiti during the recently concluded council election.

The party directed members to shun any political gathering that would be against the spirit of mourning during the period, noting that it would be an act of disrespect for the sanctity of life, if members continue to wine and dine while some weeping in pains.

In a statement in Ado-Ekiti, its Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, described the stakeholders’ meeting as illegal and unconstitutional. The party said the meeting called by Omotosho on behalf of Fayose was an aberration and a flagrant violation of the provisions of the party’s constitution.

Fayose rebuffed the party’s directive and held a meeting with some PDP members and leaders, including former political office holders, former and present party officials from ward to state levels at his Afao-Ekiti residence in the Irepodun/ Ifelodun Council Area.

Among the PDP leaders who attended the meeting were his former deputy, Prof Olusola, a former PDP deputy governorship candidate, Deji Ogunsakin, a former Commissioner for Environment, Chief Bisi Kolawole, and former House of Assembly Information Committee Chairman, Dr. Samuel Omotosho.

While other notable party bigwigs who served under him shunned the meeting including Senator Duro Faseyi, Kehinde Odebunmi, Diran Odeyemi, Olujimi’s camp and some key members of the SWC.

At the meeting, the former governor asked aggrieved members to forgive him of all his iniquities he committed while in office.

He called on the aggrieved members to embrace his peace initiative and work together with unity of purpose and togetherness to re-launch the party to prominence.

Fayose sought understanding and genuine reconciliation among all leaders and members of the party in the interest of repositioning it for future elections.

The former governor said: “What is crucial is for all of us to come together in the interest of the party. I am not contesting any election again, but I do not want the ladder that brought us up destroyed. I want us to reclaim the governorship. It is my duty to ensure that the party does not fail.

“Senator Olujimi, Senator Faseyi and Chief Oguntuwase should not be angry. I am sorry if I had offended them. I do not have to fight for the leadership of the party. The majority of those people dividing this party do so for selfish reasons.

“They do so for the purpose of what they stand to gain from the leaders. We are on a mission to reposition the party because truly we need a new attitude as members of this party. We must tell ourselves the truth that there is nothing to share in failure and we must join hands to achieve something tangible.

“I know some persons are aggrieved and I know we are humans. I apologise to all those that I have offended. Let us come together in unity for this our party not to die in this state. That is my priority as a leader.

“I am doing this one year after I left office just to allow the present APC government to display what they have for the people and you can all see for yourselves. I am not here for my selfish interest but just to ensure this party does not fail.

“Everybody should come back to the party. I am open to reconciliation. If Senator Biodun Olujimi calls you for a meeting tomorrow, go there and listen to her. All of us are leaders. Don’t let us factionalise this party. I am congratulating her and I do n ot have any issue with her. Indeed, I am sorry for what happened in the past.”

Speaking with The Nation, the Special Assistant on Public Communication to Senator Biodun Olujimi, Chief Sanya Atofarati said there was nothing to reconcile within the party. He said the reconciliation meeting was a grand plan by Governor Fayose to mobilize party member ahead of its congress having realised the fact that he had lost the party structure.

He condemned the former governor as being ill-disciplined and disloyal to the cause of the opposition party, adding that the purported reconciliation meeting was not a genuine one but a decoy to mobilise his loyalist ahead of the party next year’s congress.

Atofatariti recalled that Fayose while in office as governor ran the party like his private fiefdom without recourse to the party’s organs and structures. He said the electoral fortune of PDP had dwindled because of the dictatorial tendencies of Fayose, who he accused of taking many decisions attributed to the SWC without consulting its members.

He said: “I can say unequivocally that Fayose is the architect of the dwindling fortune currently befalling the PDP in Ekiti State. He governed with impunity and render the State Working Committee useless by solely determining who get what, when and how without consultation.

“Even he campaigned against the candidate of the party, Senator Biodun Olujimi in the Feb 23 National Assembly. But thank Almighty God that Olujimi is now in the Senate. Since he left the state, he had not called for a reconciliation to even evaluate and assess what could have been the downfall of the party in all elections.

“But because of next year’s congress, he is now coming back to hijack the party structure. I believe party members will resist him.

Fayose has outlived his relevance in the party. He is only a shareholder. He would never invest in the party if he doesn’t have anything to get in return. And what moral justification does he even have to have called for such a constituted meeting? We understand his antics.

“ I believe PDP members know their leader. Senator Biodun Olujimi is the leader. She had staked a lot for PDP in Ekiti not to go into extinction.

I must tell you that immediately after Olujimi lost the National Assembly election which she later retrieved back from the appellate court she went ahead to give one millions naira to each of the  nine assembly candidate for the March 3 elections.

Where was Fayose? He only ordered them to withdraw from the race, including the one from his immediate constituency. So can you refer to somebody like that as stakeholders?”

The squabble within the party got worse recently when Fayose and the party leadership threw brick bats over the sale of the state party secretariat located at Ajilosun area of Ado-Ekiti.

The former governor agreed that the party secretariat was sold with his blessings but insisted that it was with the active involvement of Oguntuase and other members of the SWC. He alleged the proceeds from the sale were lodged into the party’s account of the party.

But, reacting to the claim by Fayose, Oguntuase described the allegation as a cheap blackmail that lack content of validity, saying it was misleading, malicious and condemnable.

He said the secretariat, which was a collective property of PDP members was allegedly sold by the ex-governor to himself through one of his cronies, noting that the SWC never partook in selling the secretariat.

The state PDP Chairman accused the ex-governor of forging the signatures of members of the SWC. He also threatened to sue Fayose unless he retrieves it from whomever it had been sold to. Contrary to Fayose’s claim that the secretariat was sold at foundation level, Oguntuase said the SWC monitored the construction up to the second and third floors.

He said: “What he said that we sold the property in collaboration with him, is cruel, untrue and slanderous.  I believe that by that statement, he has committed libel on a high scale.

To the best of my knowledge as chairman of the party, and to the knowledge of many SWC members, we have not sold the secretariat. I want to tell you that any document they say they have, it is absolute falsehood.

“It is true he approached me to sign a document, but I told him, it was going to be a disservice to the party. I told him I cannot sign and I did not sign.

God of heaven knows that that was exactly what transpired in his house. He even asked me what I want to take and I told him I cannot take such a sacrilegious offering.

He said: “Our property if it has been sold fraudulently shall be recovered via thorough and extensive legal action that will be taken by this party. We have received assurances from loyal party leaders that they are with us.

He claims that the property was sold at foundation level, but we monitored the construction up to the second and third floors.

So, it is untrue that we have sold the property and if the governor has done it, he should retrace his step and surrender the document to the party.”