Chairmanship position: PDP elders endorse Fayose’s preferred candidate

Ahead of the congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, some elders of the party at the weekend endorsed Mr Bisi Kolawole as their preferred chairmanship candidate for the poll.

Kolawole, a former Commissioner for Environment is the anointed candidate of former governor of the state, Mr Ayodele Fayose.

Reading the communique after the meeting of the elders and stakeholders on Saturday, Chief Idowu Odeyemi said that the decision to endorse Kolawole was taken after consultation across the length and breadth of the state.

Odeyemi allayed the fear that what the elders have done amounted to an imposition, saying that,” this endorsement by the elders does not foreclose the right to participate, which means the race is still open.

“We have only expressed our right to endorse our preferred candidate, which mean another group can also endorse their own as well. We will meet at the congress. We are not imposing candidate, we have only expressed our right. The party is one and after the congress, we shall remain one.”

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Reacting to the development while fielding questions from newsmen, Fayose said he openly supported Kolawole who has just been endorsed by the elders of the party to move the party forward.

“We are not doing this to score any point, we are only looking for somebody who can manage our party vis- a -vis the fact that we don’t have a sitting Governor.

“You must equally remember that politics is about interest. Parts of the interest embedded in this congress is the governorship contest that is ahead. So I won’t blame anybody for doing what they did. But don’t forget that I told them when Adeyeye was contesting that it would end in the midst of nowhere and it happens like that.

“Adeyeye ended up in the APC and ended up out of APC. Some of them on the other side that is leading rebellion will go the same round. I have been the pillar and a major stakeholder in this party. I am not saying that I have the whole say, but the fact remains that I have given my best to this party.

” I want to assure you that I am not contesting. I don’t want to be governor, even if I want to be governor, I am no longer eligible. So I want us to do this contest without rancour, but the moment it is about rebellion, if you don’t have the numerical strength, you will lose. We are going to engage everybody is a free and fair contest. We are not sharing any position, we want a contest and whichever way it goes, we will accept it.”

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On the review of the judgments of Supreme Court being sought by political parties, Fayose described the development as unfortunate, saying it would become messy if the apex court reversed itself.

According to him, “It is unfortunate either way, for those of us who are not in judiciary and those of them in the Judiciary. The Nigerian situation is a reflection of its state of decay. For me, it is unfortunate that we have found ourselves in this situation.

“Above all, the judiciary seen as the hope of common man must not allow itself to be ridicule before the whole world. We are relying on them to assist the country. You can see that we have lost every goodwill in our security, our economy because every man is doing his own thing.

“I want the judiciary to please not allow the mistake of the past to happen again. I have not said that they (judiciary) has done well, but it will be difficult for it to reverse itself.

“If they do this it will become messy. I have not said they have done well, I also have not said that they have done the right thing, but for them to start reversing themselves, my candidate Olusola Eleka would also go back to the Supreme Court for a review. But we are not happy with some of their decisions.”