What went wrong between Ekiti PDP and Fayose?

IF events in the last few weeks are anything to go by, the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is currently enmeshed in a deep crisis. The State Working Committee (SWC) of the party and its leader, who is the immediate past governor of the state, Mr Ayodele Fayose, are at the centre of the crisis.

The party, since October 2018 when Fayose finished his second term tenure as the governor, had been yearning for a leader that would bring all the tendencies in the party together and prepare them for future elections. According to the SWC, the party was abandoned by the former governor, a situation that has made it difficult to play its opposition role against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

Before the general election, the PDP, which had all the 26 members of the state House of Assembly in its kitty, not only lost four members to APC, it also traded away the positions of the Speaker and the Leader of the House. As if destined for self-destruction, the party suspended some of its members from the House indefinitely. What is more, the PDP-dominated state legislature suspended the 16 PDP council chairmen.

The party’s tale of woes was further compounded as it lost all the 26 seats in the House of Assembly to APC; it lost the six House of Representatives seats. But for the recent return of Senator Biodun Olujimi to the Senate through the court, the party would have lost the three Senate seats in the state.

Still on the cost of the crisis, Ekiti PDP lost the presidential election to the APC because Fayose, as soon as he left office, allegedly engaged Olujimi in titanic battle on who is the rightful leader of the party. The two political gladiators set up parallel Atiku Campaign Councils and the PDP ended up going into the poll a highly divided and politically-battered house.

Apparently disturbed with the affairs of the party, one year after he left office as governor, Fayose returned to the state with moves towards uniting the party ahead of future elections. Before the reconciliatory move of Fayose, the PDP had lost seven of its then serving local government chairmen to the APC. They dropped the umbrella for the broom and they were received into the APC by Governor Kayode Fayemi, few weeks ago.

However, the question on the lips of many of the PDP members in the state is, how genuine is the reconciliation being sought by Fayose? The question stemmed out of the fact that since the party lost out in the last elections, no stakeholders meeting has been held at his instance to unite the different tendencies in the party.

Secondly, in the absence of Fayose, Olujimi appeared to have taken over the leadership of the party. At the moment, no fewer than 20 immediate past state lawmakers are with her; half of the commissioners that served in the Fayose cabinet are with her and members of the Ekiti PDP SWC are with her. It was learnt on good authority that Olujimi funded the SWC to mobilise for the local government election recently held in the state.

To some political analysts, the reconciliation move by the former governor was about taking over the soul of the party ahead of the March 2020 congresses of the party that would usher in new party structures from the ward level to the state level. As  a confirmation of the frosty relationship between the SWC and Fayose, the leaders of  the party asked its members to shun the peace meeting conveyed by the former governor in his country home, Afao-Ekiti. The Ekiti PDP SWC, in a statement by its publicity secretary, Jackson Adebayo, described the meeting called by a former lawmaker, Dr Samuel Omotosho, on behalf of the former governor, two weeks ago, as illegal, unconstitutional and without the approval of the party.

However, Fayose, at the meeting attended by his loyalists across the 16 local government areas of the state, said he was extending an olive branch to all aggrieved members of the party in the state to work together in unity in the overall interest of the PDP. He said the party must be repositioned ahead of future elections in the state, warning that it was only in unity that the PDP could win.

He said: “We are on a mission to repositioning 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 the leader. I am doing this after one year I left office just to allow the present APC 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.”

Fayose, who used the meeting to officially congratulate Senator Biodun Olujimi on her recent victory as the lawmaker representing Ekiti South senatorial district, also apologised for campaigning and working against her in the February election, saying, “I am congratulating her (Senator Olujimi) and I don’t have any issue with her and I am sorry for what happened in the past.”

While explaining that creating different groups within the party would not be the best option, he assured that all issues and tendencies would be resolved for the party to reclaim the state from the APC in future elections. “Everybody should come back to the party. I plead with Senator Biodun Olujimi, Duro Faseyi and others to forgive and forget, even though I know I have not wrong anybody. It is my duty to ensure that this party didn’t fall. Don’t let us divide the party. If Senator Olujimi calls you for meeting tomorrow, go there and listen to her,” he said.

Another issue which has pelted Fayose against the SWC is the alleged selling of the new party secretariat located along Ajilosun area of the state capital. While the former governor at the meeting disclosed that the secretariat was sold with the active involvement of the state leadership of the party, the SWC members dissociated themselves from the position canvassed by Fayose. The chairman of the party, Mr Gboyega Oguntuwase, described Fayose’s statement on the secretariat as, “misleading, malicious and condemnable.”

Oguntuwase noted that the SWC members never signed any documents as regards the selling of the building, adding that their signatures were forged. According to him, Fayose called him to sign documents towards selling of the property with a promise of money but he turned down all entreaties from the former governor.

“Fayose said or alleged that the secretariat of the party has been sold with the knowledge of the party chairman and members of the SWC. With due respect to his person, we consider the statement as misleading, malicious, and condemnable. We would have called it outright falsehood, but for the sake of modesty and for the future peace of this party, we will not use this language.

“What he said that we sold the property in collaboration with him, is untrue. 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 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 still stand by that. Those who are claiming to be Fayose’s can’t be more Fayose than us. But we know where to draw the line of respect for party leaders and the truth and godliness.

“I told him I can’t 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 can’t take such a sacrilegious offering. Our property, if it has been sold via fraud, shall be recovered via legal action that will be taken by this party. We have received assurances from loyal party leaders that they are with us. If they have put somebody signature, it must have been signature got through another transaction to have an appearance of legality. It is trite in law that the expression of your mind is germane to the making of any document. My mind never signed; the action of signing was not done by me. And I can’t sign a document that I don’t know the buyer. I never met the buyer,” he said.

Of truth, the PDP in Ekiti needs genuine reconciliation and repositioning, if it intends to survive the current quagmire and go ahead to challenge the APC in the 2022 governorship poll.