Fayemi fires back at Adeyeye, describes formation of SWAGA as misnomer

The Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi has fired back at former Minister of Works, Dayo Adeyeye over his recent comments as regards development in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Adeyeye had on Wednesday called on the leadership of the party to place the governor on the watch list over his alleged anti-party activities following his recent statement and activities in the state chapter of the APC.

But the governor in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications, Segun Dipe, described Adeyeye as a failed politician who is in search of relevance in the polity.

According to the governor, the South West Agenda (SWAGA) being headed by Adeyeye to promote the reported 2023 presidential ambition of former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu is a misnomer and unknown to the hierarchy of the party.

Fayemi said: “We consider referring to himself as SWAGA Chairman within the APC as a misnomer. Perhaps Adeyeye needs to be reminded that the APC has since made pronouncements against setting up groups within the party.

“Just last year June (2020), the Lagos APC, led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu dissolved all groups within the party into the APC structure in the state. According to a communique duly signed by the Governor’s Advisory Council, which is the highest decision-making body within the Lagos APC, all groups, including the two most powerful – The Mandate Group and Justice Forum – ceased to exist. The resolution, Tinubu himself said, was to restate the often-stated position that the only group known is the APC and not any of the factional groups.

“One then wonders from where Adeyeye and his co-travellers derive their power to float another group within the APC, which they are calling APC members to start porting to. If this is not an anti-party move, then we wonder what it is.”

The statement added that the comments credited to the governor during last week’s ‘The Platform’ event in Lagos was a testimony of his altruistic and democratic acumen.

“While fielding questions on the agitations by the youths, Governor Fayemi said the young people should stop agonising and start organizing. And that if they don’t like what APC is doing, there’s only one way: Let them organize, go to a party of their choice and vote against us.

“We expect Adeyeye as a journalist to know better than being narrow-minded. Instead of accusing Fayemi of anti-party activities, what this shows is Fayemi’s fairmindedness and democratic credentials.

“But he has opted to deliberately apply the mischief rule in his interpretation of Dr Fayemi’s words. We won’t blame him (Adeyeye) though, we can only regard him as an out-of-favour, a narrow-minded and self-serving politician who is looking for a platform, real or imagined, to re-launch himself,” he said.

Dipe noted that “no amount of character assassination from the likes of Adeyeye would reduce the governor’s relevance, and in his usual element, Fayemi would only wave it off as one the usual tantrums of a desperate politician in search of relevance.”

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