Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti

A group, Concerned All Progressives Congress (APC) Youth, has, following the comments of former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose that some chieftains of the ruling party would not be allowed to defect to the opposition party in the state, said that Fayose was not in a position and did not have the sole power to determine the admission of any persons into the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

Fayose had stated that the duo of former Minister of Works, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, and the Special Adviser on Political Matters to the President, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, won’t be allowed to defect to the PDP.

Fayose made the statement following comments allegedly made by Ojudu, who in conjunction with Adeyeye and others are locked in a squabble with Governor Kayode Fayemi in the APC that he will never defect to the opposition party in spite of his disagreement with the governor.

Ojudu said: ‘If I die and they put PDP flag on my coffin, I will wake up, tear it and go back to sleep.’

Based on the comment, Fayose had retorted that the APC chieftains were not wanted in the PDP.

Replying to Fayose’s comment in a statement on Saturday, the group’s coordinator, Mr Tenibiaje Babatope, said that Fayose lacked the locus to either meddle in the local politics of the APC or to solely determine who becomes the members of the PDP.

‘We view with amusement and consternation, the vituperation of Ayo Fayose against Senators Adeyeye and Ojudu that they are not welcomed in PDP,’ he said.

‘In a sane clime, Fayose ought to bury his head in shame and apologize to the Ekiti people over his wasted years of terror and malfeasance instead of dancing naked in the market square.

‘One wonders if Fayose, who had tasted PDP, All Nigeria People’s Party, Action Alliance, Labour Party and returned to PDP, becoming the party’s destroyer and undertaker of a party that well-meaning Ekiti people toiled to build while in the wilderness could claim to be the new owner of the party,’ he said.

Tenibiaje added further that ‘Fayose was the only Governor in Ekiti history that was impeached, the only Governor facing criminal corruption charges and the only Governor that reduced Ekiti people to street beggars, giving one Congo of rice and N200 as palliative.

‘When did Fayose suddenly become the spokesperson of APC? He is just a meddlesome interloper seeking relevance in order to seek soft landing from Fayemi. Fayose’s advice to Fayemi that he should deal with Senators Ojudu and Adeyeye was ill-timed, full of biles and hatred. Leave APC to solve its own problem in a family way,’ Tenibiaje advised.

He advised Fayose to concentrate his energies on how to resolve the post ward congress crisis that has caused friction between him and Senator Biodun Olujimi than to be dissipating energy on how to break the APC.

‘Fayose is not in a position to determine the admission or otherwise of any person to the PDP. He is not the founder or the owner of the party. He is the major cause of the current misfortune of the party in the state.

‘His vituperations against these two great sons of Ekiti show clearly that he is still in chains and yet to be liberated,’ the group said.