Politics
Ekiti 2022: Party Followers Rebel …as defeated aspirants plot third force
By OLUSESAN LAOYE
All is still not well in Ekiti State, as those who lost out in the primaries of both the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) are still bitter and have refused to accept the result.
The primaries have further deepened the crises in both parties, which became known during their congresses. The two major parties have suffered strong divisions before the congresses, which led to both having parallel line ones.
The governorships primaries, further caused a division and all the key players are now at loggerheads, a situation which could lead to some of them leaving the party.
Already, three major key players in APC and PDP are signaling there displeasure with the outcome of the primaries, and were on the verge of leaving their parties if what they wanted from the leadership of their respective parties at the National level did not favour them.
Among those disenchanted are the former governor of the State, Engineer Olusegun Oni, Senator Abiodun Olujimi (both from PDP), Senator Opeyemi Bamidele and Prince Dayo Adeyeye from APC. Although Oni has already left for APGA, and Olujimi is promising further steps, Bamidele dismissed decamping from APC, however, he vowed that the seven defeated aspirants will take action including legal to redress the situation.
These notable political leaders are angry, still fuming and ready to do otherwise. Their actions could cost the two parties a lot and as it was being speculated, they are likely to form a powerful block against the PDP and the APC, peradventure they abandon their parties.
This is the speculation going round but no one is sure how they are going to form the formidable third force because they do not belong to the same political party. The bottom line is that all of them are aggrieved for the same reasons and common Interests.
As a political analyst said, for all of them to join hands and unite against their common enemies is not difficult if they are focused and determined.
He gave the example of how the APC was formed against the PDP. This kind of arrangement he posited, can’t be difficult to form or form in a state where they all know themselves, friendly with each other operate as a family, despite their political differences. He further argued that for the mere fact that they all know their strengths politically” a united front will not be difficult.”
The common enemy which Oni and Olujimi are fighting is former governor Ayodele Fayose, who they believed manipulated the primary to favour his anointed candidate. Olujimi and Oni accused Fayose of conniving with the the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel who was the Chairman of the committee that conducted the primary.
It was alleged that Udom favoured Fayose as a pay back for what Fayose, who was the chairman of the committee, that conducted his primary, which subsequently made him a governor. In PDP 17 of them contested and it was Fayose’s candidate that emerged, an indication which showed that Fayose had an edge over others.
Going by the feelers in the state, it was argued that, Fayose was determined to ensure that both Olujimi and Oni would not smell the candidature of the party for the governorship election, based on the deep animosities between them and the struggle for party leadership.
Fayose, it was learnt, so much hated Oni that he was always letting those who cared to listen to know that Oni would get the ticket of the party over his dead body.
Even before the primary, the hand writing was on the wall as the Media aide to Fayose, Lere Olayinka, spoke the mind of his boss, that they knew those who have moved from party to party, and those who have stood solidly in PDP “and we know those who helped in rigging out the PDP in the 2018 governorship election”. It was apparent that Fayose through Olayinka, was referring to Oni.
Even the hatred between them was so glaring that during the South West PDP congress, which produced Taufeek Arapaja, they were in different camps.
Olujimi’s offence is that she challenged Fayose in leadership contest of the party. Fayose claimed that as a former governor, he was supposed to lead the party in the State, while Olujimi insisted that the rule of the party is for the most serving political office holder to head the party and she happens to be in that position to lead as a Senator, whereas “Fayose is no more holding any elective or political office.”
It was this battle that they carried to the 2020 party Congress where two parallel congresses were held with Fayose leading a faction and Olujimi leading another one. At the end of the day, the Uche Secondus National
Executive upheld that of Fayose’s group and jettisoned the Olujimi’s faction.
This led to a litigation in which the lower courts ruled in favour of Fayoye led faction, but the Olujimi’s group went to the Appeal Court which is yet to give verdict on the matter.
This in itself is another clog in the wheel of the progress of the PDP. Should the Appeal court rule in favour of the Olujimi’s faction and should the PDP wins the June 18, 2022 governorship election, that victory would be a nullity, based on the process which produced the candidate.
The prayer in Fayose’s camp it was learnt, is that the appellate court verdict should come before June.
With all these, at the background, it was glaring that Fayose, who controls the machinery of the party in Ekiti State, would not allow any other person near the ticket of the PDP but his ardent loyalist.
This was how Bisi Kolawole, Fayose’s favourite emerged as the candidate of PDP.
In APC it was clear too, that the incumbent governor Kayode Fayemi would not back any of the seven aspirants, based on the fact that he would not want a powerful person to succeed him.
Those who wanted his position in APC are very powerful people who had held several political offices and who at one time or the other had crossed his path.
The strong aspirants who are the most bitter on the outcome of the primary are Opeyemi Bamidele and Dayo Adeyeye. While Bamidele is a serving Senator and former member of the House of Representatives, and governorship aspirant when Fayemi was looking for a second term which he lost to Fayose.
Bamidele had to abandon the APC for the labour party, to contest the election, when the battle was so tensed over who gets the ticket between the duo.
Although they both settled, the presidential ambition of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinibu caused another issue between them. Bamidele is in favour of his former boss and mentor, Tinubu, for the same presidency in which Fayemi is interested.
As for Adeyeye, he is in the same camp with Bamidele on the issue of the presidency, as the National Coordinator of the South West Agenda (SWAGA) championing Tinubu’s presidential ambition. Adeyeye has been at loggerheads with Fayemi and this led to a parallel congresses at both the ward Local and State.
With the events now unfolding, the battle is glaring against PDP and APC should Olujimi, Oni, Bamidele team up to fight. Whatever would happen before June this year depends on how the leadership of the parties handled the situation.
The Oni group while reacting stated that the outcome of the primary, was influenced by Fayose to sell the party to the APC. Director General of Oni Campaign Organisation, Hon. Yemi Arokodare, said the result of the election was pre-determined.
The group asked the National Chairman of the Party Iyorcha Ayu to explain why he allowed Governor Udom Emmanuel to come for the second exercise in Ekiti after midwiving the process for the botched ad-hoc delegates’ election that was nullified.
“Ayu must tell the world why he cannot trust any other PDP governor except Governor Udom Emmanuel to conduct the two exercises in Ekiti State when it is evident that Fayose had conducted Governor Udom’s 2019 primaries,” he said.
Also, Olujimi said with the tempers now high in the states and across party members, the possibility of exiting the PDP cannot be done in a hurry. She argued that, the party did not create room for every aspirant to discuss together, while she believed that Fayose, former governor of the state, took them for granted
“My gender has been affected. Beyond that, the fact that people take everybody for granted has also affected all of us. You can’t take people for granted.”
In his own reaction, Adeyeye said that both Fayemi and Fayose are not fair to the people of Ekiti South who have been agreed by all the political stake holders, to produce the 2022 governor in Ekiti state.
He said the people of the South were surprised with the turn of events, when both Fayose, Fayemi and even Oni stood against the South instead of backing them.
“These are leaders who have benefitted from the rotational arrangement and they now worked against the Southern Senatorial zone of the state to produce the next governor in the coming election.”
The Chairman, Southern Senators’ Forum and an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has said he would take all necessary legal actions to test the viability of the Ekiti State governorship primary of the party.
The APC held its primary election on January 27 ahead of the Ekiti State governorship election slated for June 18, where Chairman of the APC Electoral Committee for the exercise, Governor Badaru, declared Hon. Biodun Oyebanji as the winner of the poll.
The Jigawa State governor announced that Abayomi polled a total of 101,703 votes to defeat seven other aspirants including Bamidele.
The seven aspirants had earlier announced their withdrawal from the poll over an alleged plot to manipulate the exercise in favour of Governor Kayode Fayemi’s anointed.
But announcing the results, Badaru said Sen. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele scored 706 votes, Sen. Dayo Adeyeye, 691 votes, Hon. Femi Bamisile, 400 votes, Mr. Kayode Ojo, 767, Hon. Demola Popoola, 239, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, 376 and Hon. Olu Afolabi, had 47 votes.
However, Bamidele who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters in a statement yesterday said there was no election.
“It is public knowledge that no primary election took place on Thursday, 27th January 2022 but yet, rather disappointedly, results were announced based on concocted and fictitious vote counts.
“The underlining level of impunity, desperation and perfidy which characterized the entire rigging process was so much and thought beclouding that I was allotted 700 plus votes in a statewide gubernatorial primary election in a state where I had scored over 90,000 votes in just one out of three Senatorial Districts to emerge as a Senator.
“More specifically, the breakdown of the votes allotted to me indicated that I got 150 votes in Ado Ekiti, my beloved second home where I had recorded Twenty Eight Thousand votes out of the 42,000 votes that gave me the House of Representatives mandate way back in the year 2011 to represent Ado / Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency.
“But we will remain resolute, strong, focused and faithful in the face of this impunity, total lack of regard for the electoral due process and executive rascality by a chosen few who were elected to represent the interests of Ekiti people,” the lawmaker said.