Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction loyal to Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, have lost the rights to vote at the party’s National Convention due to hold in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
A member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Clement Awoyelu, disclosed this in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, on Thursday during the swearing-in of the State Executive Committee (SEC) led by Chief Williams Ajayi.
Ajayi and members of his executive were sworn into office by a lawyer, Olu Jayeoba. The Ajayi-led faction is believed to be loyal to the Senator representing Ogun East in the National Assembly, Buruji Kashamu.
Ajayi promised to restore sanity to the party, work for reconciliation and bring back leaders and members who had left in frustration.
The inauguration was held consequent upon a Federal High Court ruling which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP not to recognize the Gboyega Oguntuase-led exco loyal to Fayose.
The court presided over by Justice Taiwo Taiwo ordered Oguntuase and others elected at a parallel congress to stop parading themselves as executive members of the party pending the determination of the Motion on Notice.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Ajayi-led executive, Awoyelu who is also a member of the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) said the party had been taken over from Fayose by the spirit and letter of the Tuesday’s court order.
Awoyelu who served as the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate between 2003 and 2007 affirmed that members of the Fayose faction will not be allowed into the venue of the Port Harcourt convention let alone voting at the event.
According to Awoyelu, reclaiming the party from Fayose remains the best option for the party to avert imminent destruction occasioned by the governor’s alleged one-man show in the running of the party.
While clarifying that he has no personal grudge against Fayose, Awoyelu said party elders would not fold their arms and allow the governor to turn the PDP into his personal estate.
He said it was wrong for Fayose to take party official meetings to his personal house in his hometown, Afao Ekiti, rather than the PDP secretariat in Ado Ekiti.
Awoyelu explained that the situation in Ekiti PDP was so bad that Fayose handpicked executives at the ward, local government and state levels, saying the party would now be repositioned in line with the dream of its founding fathers.
The party leader said the national leadership had compiled the list of delegates to vote at the National Convention and had been served with the Federal High Court order barring the National Secretariat from recognizing the list forwarded by the Fayose faction.
He said: “I have been in the party politics for more than 50 years and that is why we are trying to restructure our party. We will never sleep until we reclaim our party from Governor Fayose. We are ready to correct all the wrongs in our party.
“I have grouse with Fayose in two ways: One, I have never seen a state where governor will be the one to appoint councillorship candidates. This is wrong because it is the duty of the party leaders. Two, the governor has appropriated the party to himself .
“The governor has not attended any meeting at the party secretariat, instead he relocated the party to his house in Afao Ekiti. These we will not tolerate.
“I have been a member of the PDP National Executive Committee since 1998, Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo , Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were attending meeting at Wadata Plaza in Abuja. But this is not so under Governor Fayose.
“Governor Fayose was not in Ekiti when we formed PDP. He didn’t know anything about PDP. And we thank God that the election of the new SEC and the verdict of the court have shown that God and the people have rejected the governor. We have reclaimed the state from him.
“As SEC of the party, you have nothing to fear because the court had validated your victories. You should ensure unity in our party and bring every aggrieved member on board,” he said.
Former Secretary to the State Government, Amb. Dare Bejide, who is a lawyer, stressed that going by the Tuesday’s order of the Ado Ekiti Federal High Court, Fayose’s faction members won’t be allowed near the convention venue.
Bejide, who is also former Nigeria High Commissioner to Canada said the list of the Ajayi-led party executives has been attached to the court order and forwarded to the PDP National Secretariat for compilation as delegates to the National Convention in Port Harcourt.
He urged the new SEC to instill discipline in the party and make it a formidable force to be able to win elections.
Ajayi promised to restore sanity to the party, worked for reconciliation and bring back leaders and members who had left in frustration.
The party chair said the congress held by other faction remained illegal, saying he and his exco are now focused to move the party forward, also calling for members’ support.
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