Crisis Looms In Ekiti PDP As Stakeholders Reject Fayose’s Candidate

The announcement of Ekiti State’s deputy governor, Professor Kolapo Olusola, as sole candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2018 governorship election in the state seems to have signaled a looming crisis as some prominent chieftains of the party petitioned National Caretaker Committee, saying they would not accept imposition in choosing the party’s candidate for the forthcoming election in the state.

They described as a “dance of shame,” the recent adoption of the Deputy Governor of the state,  Prof.  Olusola Eleka, as the consensus candidate of the party for the election.

The petition, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, rejected Eleka,  whose candidature was being backed by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The petition,  which was signed by Dr. Seun Adebayo and Mr. Gbenga Babawibe, was titled,  “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,”  which was from the classical poem by Henry Wadsworth, titled, “The Masque of Pandora,” written in 1875.

The petition read in part, “We reflect on the import of this statement as we stoically condemn the charade and ill-advised, poorly thought out,  dance of shame organised by the outgoing Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, at the Ekiti State Government House on Wednesday, September 6, during which he superintended the purported adoption of his deputy, Olusola Eleka, as the preferred candidate  of our great party, the PDP, for the 2018 governorship election in our state.

“Much as we reject and condemn this attempt at provoking us to wrath, we rather decide to be more circumspect by taking the noble option of pitying the governor.

“We unambiguously, reject the illegal adoption of Eleka as done by Fayose because he does not own the party, but has rather been a harbinger of disunity and chaos in the Ekiti State chapter of the PDP.

“We view his decision to cause unnecessary upheaval in the party by the provocative action as a continuation of his desire to sustain the division he caused at the national level when he canvassed and fought like a wounded lion for the enthronement of Ali Modu-Sheriff as the national chairman of the party, a move that almost brought the party to its knees.”

They promised to resist the imposition, which they said was unacceptable, saying that the action of the governor remained unpopular and undemocratic.

Apart from this, they also said that the action contradicted the provisions of the PDP constitution, the provisions of the Electoral Act and “does not meet any criteria under the principle of fair participation in an open democratic contest which should produce the candidate of a political party in a democracy like ours.”

They added that the action of the governor was self-serving.

The aggrieved party members said, “A governor who has been battling corruption charges even while enjoying constitutional immunity as a state governor is sure to run helter-skelter looking to form any sort of shield round himself in preparation for exit from the government, even if such shield will eventually collapse like a badly arranged pack of cards.

“We pity Fayose’s desperate moves to find a way of avoiding … a development that is sure to affect the chances of our party at the next election unless the party can put its act together and select, through a democratic party primary, a credible individual as our candidate for the election, who will be accepted by the voting masses in Ekiti State.

“But out of desperation, and his unquenchable greed, he’s seeking a politically deaf and dumb stooge who will continue to open the state vault to him to satisfy his refractory thirst for primitive acquisition of wealth which he has been nurturing since 2014 when he was sworn into office.”

Source: Punch Newspaper