Mr Tanko Beji, Chairman of the PDP in Niger State has said that outgoing Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has no reason to leave the party over the outcome of the National Convention.
Fayose had threatened to leave the PDP following the failure of his preferred aspirant and Sokoto Governor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, to pick the party’s presidential ticket. Tambuwal lost the ticket to former Vice President Abubakar Atiku who got 1,532 votes to dwarf his 693 votes at the National Convention held on Saturday in Port Harcourt.
Fayose, in a statement on Monday in Ado Ekiti, threatened to leave the PDP and defect to another political fold. But Beji, who spoke with newsmen on Tuesday in Minna, said that Fayose, a vocal founding member of the PDP, had no reason to dump the party. “Fayose is the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum; he cannot abandon the position and leave the party in the middle of the sea,” he said. Beji wondered why Fayose should keep the loss of the ticket to heart when Tambuwal had already congratulated the winner. “Fayose cannot cry more than the bereaved. I will advise him not to take a step he could regret later.
“Fayose is a bold democrat we all respect in PDP. Majority of PDP members have accepted Atiku. Fayose cannot say no. “What I expect Fayose to do is to join the majority. He has the right to be angry, but this is democracy and the majority has spoken,” he said. The chairman also dismissed claims that some of the PDP candidates for next year’s general election were sponsored by the opposition. “We do not have moles among our candidates. That I can assure you,” he said. The chairman said that the PDP primaries were successful at all levels, declaring that the party was “set to confront and defeat every rival in the 2019 general elections”.
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