PDP aspirants spit fire; reject Olusola, demand dissolution of party’s Exco

FOUR Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants in Ekiti State have again rejected the nomination or adoption of Professor Kolapo Olusola as the sole candidate of the party for the July governorship election in the state.

Senator Abiodun Olujimi, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, Ambassador Dare Bejide and Owoseni Ajayi, who jointly addressed a press conference on Tuesday, also demanded the dissolution of the state executive committee of the PDP under the chairmanship of Chief Gboyega Oguntuwase.

At the press conference held at the chambers of Ajayi, who until recently was the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner, the aspirants said “the state governor, Ayodele Fayose, having pitched his tent with the deputy governor, Kolapo Olusola, is disqualified from playing any role in the PDP primary in April 2018.”

Reacting, the government said Governor Fayose has not violated any section of the constitution, whether that of the PDP or the 1999 constitution and explained that “what the governor did was in the exercise of his own rights as a member of the party and as a Nigerian.”

Adeyeye, who read the script on behalf of the others also, said: “the relevant provision of the electoral act and PDP constitution should be strictly followed in conducting the governorship primary in April this year.”

On the call for the dissolution of the PDP executive, the four aspirants said the party had “betrayed its expected neutrality role and should be disqualified in the process leading to the governorship primary in April this year. We demand a caretaker committee to replace them for the state.”

Explaining their position, Senator Olujimi said they had nothing against the person of Governor Fayose, “but we are against his policies and actions in the party.”

Olujimi said: “All of us here contributed to the emergence of Governor Fayose. We secured our local government areas by standing firm and working to ensure victory. We held our forte, that’s why we recorded 16 – 0. But with the way things are going, can we still record that kind of victory?”

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In his remarks, Bejide said: “Governor Fayose is holding the highest political office in the state; therefore he should be fair to all aspirants. We ask that he should be disqualified in the process of the election because all of us are contesting and he chose one of us. This means that he has descended into the arena, he should, therefore, be disqualified.”

Ajayi, in explaining their action, said what they were doing was a “to let the whole world know and those coming to Ekiti to conduct the primaries that it is not about the governor alone.”

On September 6, 2017, some PDP stakeholders, at a meeting in government house, adopted Professor Olusola as the party’s candidate for the governorship election, and this action has infuriated other aspirants in the party.

They warned that if the PDP failed to conduct fair and just primaries, the party might find winning the July election an uphill task, citing what they described as “serious anger among the membership of the party.”

Governor Fayose, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, said “the primaries will still hold and it is the delegates that will pick any of the aspirants. The governor has said there will be a level playing field, so they have nothing to fear. Let them go and begin the campaign.”