No one ever said that being in power was easy, this is because it seems like the PDP are fighting many battles both internal and external and these fighting is taking place on many fronts. This is because the crisis in the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a new dimension, as there is now confusion over the status of the suspended leaders of the party in Ekiti State.
On Thursday , the South-West zone of the party said: “Rising from a meeting of the executive committee of the party in South West zone, held in Lagos, on Wednesday, the zonal executive directed that all the spate of suspensions recently announced by various groups in the state PDP is hereby set aside and status quo ante maintained.”
The party, according to the statement, added that “the decision was taken to prevent a situation where it would go to the election next year as a divided house.”
But, in a reaction to the statement announcing the lifting of the suspension, the Ekiti State chapter of the party, in Ado-Ekiti, on Thursdasy, said “the suspension of Fayose and others stands.”
In a statement credited to the chairman of the party in the state, Mr Makanjuola Ogundipe, signed by his media aide, Mr Femi Omolusi, the party said “the zonal executive of the PDP does not have any role to play in the suspension of any member of the party and lifting of suspension on already suspended member.”
Ogundipe added in the statement that “as far as the Ekiti State PDP is concerned, Fayose; T.K.O Aluko, secretary; Dr T.K Aluko, Pastor Kola Oluwawole and Busola Oyebode stand suspended from the party and they will have to face disciplinary committee to be set up very soon.”
Ogundipe added in the statement that “in the case of Fayose, being a former member of the PDP National Executive Council (NEC), the zone can only act on directive from the national chairman of the party and no such directive had been given.”
A statement earlier sent to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti was said to have been issued after a meeting of the zonal executive of the party in Lagos, presided over by the zonal chairman, Chief Ishola Filani.
“In a press statement issued yesterday (Thursday) by the chairman, caretaker committee of the party in the zone, Chief Ishola Filani, the party stated that it cannot fold its hands and allow individual interest to destroy the party as the 2014 governorship poll draws nearer in the state.”
The statement added that “those who are to benefit from this rapprochement are Fayose; chairman, Ogundipe; secretary, Dr T.K Aluko; public relations officer, Pastor Kola Oluwawole; women leader, Busola Oyebode; treasurer, Deolu Aluko; youth leader, Taye Olatunji and the Director-General, Information, Chief Gboyega Aribisangan,” saying that “the raging crisis will not add any value to the party in Ekiti but will destroy it totally.”
According to the statement, the zonal executive set up a five-man committee to look into the crisis and come up with a resolution/recommendation within 10 days, while Chief Filani and two other Ekiti indigenes in the executive were to visit the state to ensure there was peace.
The five-man committee, according to the statement, was headed by Dr Yomi Finnih, with Mr Ebenezer Alabi, chairman, Ondo State chapter of the party, as secretary.
Other members of the committee were Mrs Ayoka Lawani, Chief Zaccheaus Oyekunle and Mr Ayo Olowofoyeku.”
But Ogundipe, in his reaction, contended that the action of the zonal executive was “null and void,” saying it lacked the powers to take the decision to lift the indefinite suspension on Fayose and three others.
Ogundipe, in the statement, noted that “it was curious that the meeting of the South-West Caretaker Committee, in which the decision was taken, was held in an hotel belonging to Buruji Kasamu in Lagos, instead of the party’s zonal secretariat in Ibadan, where meetings of the South West zonal executive of the party are held.
“Well, let me tell them clearly that as the chairman of the PDP in Ekiti State, Fayose and others, whose suspension we announced on Tuesday, remained suspended from the PDP.”
Ogundipe said he was committed to “discipline and strict adherence to party rules,” adding that “what we are saying simply is that no one is greater than the party and if anyone feels that he is the lord and that he is superior to the PDP, the exit door is open for such a person.”
However, Fayose, who had, in an earlier statement, commended the zonal executive for what he described as “quick intervention” in the crisis, said in another reaction to Ogundipe’s statement that “the South-West supercedes the power of Ogundipe.”
In a statement by the director of media, Ayo Fayose campaign organisation, Mr Idowu Adelusi, Fayose held that “Ogundipe and his people have to abide by the decision of the SW zonal leadership,” adding that “for Ogundipe to challenge the decision of the South West executive, it shows he lacks discipline.”
Meanwhile, ahead the 2014 governorship election in the state, Fayose has vowed that himself and his supporters would not accept anything less than “an open, transparent primaries” for the selection of the party’s standard-bearer as against the consensus arrangement being planned by its leadership.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, shortly after he submitted a three-page petition to the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, in a reaction to an earlier petition against him by the Chief Ogundipe-led state executive committee of the party, Fayose dismissed the proposed consensus arrangement, alleging that it was meant to impose the current Minister of Police Affairs,Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (retd), on the party as a consensus candidate.
He disclosed that despite the fact that there was no official directive from the national secretariat of the party on the conduct of the primaries, the state executive had sold forms to about 13 aspirants at a non-refundable cost of N2 million and, at the same time, set up an 11-man consensus committee to shop for a choice candidate.
He distanced himself from the violence that erupted at the state secretariat of the party.
Reacting, Olubolade described Fayose as “a drowning man desperate to drag others along with him.”