Published
on January 16, 2023
The lawmaker representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, Biodun Olujimi, and former Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Eleka, are up in arms against former Governor Ayo Fayose for allegedly giving support to opposition candidate, Hon. Yemi Adaramodu.
Adaramodu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is the opponent of Olujimi, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, flag bearer in the February 25 Ekiti South Senatorial Election to be held alongside the National Assembly election in other parts of the country.
Olujimi said the alleged directive Fayose gave to his loyalists within the party to support Adaramodu constituted an anti-party activity and should engage the attention of the national leadership of the PDP.
Eleka said a recent video in circulation showing Fayose urging his supporters to reject Olujimi and vote for Adaramodu was against the statesmanship and exemplary leadership expected of a former governor.
Olujimi and Eleka, who spoke during a radio programme monitored by our correspondent at the weekend, promised to go ahead with the campaign to ensure that the PDP wins the Ekiti South senatorial election, other legislative seats and the presidential election in the state.
The duo also spoke against the background of the open campaign for the APC candidate, Adaramodu, by two former Ekiti State House of Assembly members who are staunch loyalists of Fayose, Hon. Dare Pelemo and Hon. Wale Onigiobi, based on the decision reached at a meeting called by Fayose to work against Olujimi’s candidature.
Eleka claimed that despite Fayose’s opposition to Olujimi’s return to the Senate, the majority of PDP members and the electorate in Ekiti South senatorial district are rooting for the former Senate Minority Leader to return to the Red Chamber of the National Assembly for the third time.
The former Deputy Governor spoke in his capacity as the Director of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee for Ekiti South.
The senator, who disclosed that she was preparing for a rally at the time she was called from the studio, maintained that PDP members openly campaigning for an APC candidate must leave the party because what they are doing offends the party constitution.
Eleka disclosed that there was no time Olujimi said she did not need the support of Fayose and his loyalists as alleged by Pelemo and Onigiobi, saying the two former lawmakers were not at a meeting the former governor and some of the party members loyal to him held with PDP vice presidential candidate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa in Lagos.
Olujimi said: “You cannot be in the party and be declaring support for another person in another party. There is nothing stopping you from working for the person you believe in but when you are staying in the party and you are doing that, it is not only anti-party but is also against all tenets of democracy.
“These are indecent acts that border on anti-party and people like that should leave the party and that is the truth because they don’t believe in what the party holds. They are looking on a particular leadership within the PDP and they should be decorous enough to hold on to the tenets of what party affiliation dictates.
“It’s all about former Governor Fayose, it’s all about him, it’s all about wanting to lead at all times which we are not averse to. No, we are not averse to that but we are asking for decency and decorum and a little bit of respect for our persons.”
Eleka said: “Being a leader does not mean that you don’t show respect and regard for your followers and associates. A leader who goes about running down his followers and bringing out falsehood just to keep them perpetually at a certain level. He is definitely going to lose his support base.
“I heard Pelemo and Onigiobi talking that they are members of the PDP, but if at a point in time, you start campaigning for the opposition, campaigning against the candidate of your party, there is no other name for it than an anti-party activity.
“In that (Lagos) meeting they were to, referring to, Pelemo was not there, Onigiobi was not there. It was the report that Fayose gave them that caused them to come out to say Olujimi does not need them. She did not say that, they were only fed with false report.
“They depended on a second-hand information given to them by Ayo Fayose. There is hardly any organization where you will not have two or three persons with differences and issues to resolve but when the foundation is destroyed, the righteous become incapacitated.
“The video is there, Fayose invited them that this was what Olujimi said. I have the video, I have watched it. But Olujimi did not say what Fayose said she said. A great majority of PDP members and electorate are rooting for Olujimi and by God’s grace, she will win the Ekiti South senatorial election.”
The former Deputy Governor explained that there is still room for reconciliation between the interest groups in the Ekiti PDP ahead of the 2023 general elections so that they will not approach the polls as a divided house.
