…says those behind the call worked against party during governorship election
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ekiti state ,High Chief Tunde Ogunleye has cautioned some Party members calling for the expulsion of former governor in the state, Ayodele Fayose from the PDP.
Ogunleye who was a former commissioner for public utilities during the second administration of the former governor reacted to a resolution at the end of the PDP stakeholders’ meeting recently where some party chieftains reportedly demanded for expulsion of the former governor.
The PDP stalwart in a swift reaction while speaking with New Telegraph on Saturday in Ado- Ekiti,the state capital declared that those making such proposition were moles in the PDP who left the party despite the free and fair governorship primary election conducted in the state last year and went ahead to work for the candidate of the social Democratic party,SDP, Engineer Segun Oni. Ogunleye added that the Fayose ever remains a committed party leader ready to sacrifice for the party if put in order.
“There should be enough of this threat . PDP is in the habit of threatening their members that they are going to expel them and if threatening they are going to expel governor Fayose, they should go ahead and do it and lets see how it goes. Enough of threat on the governor. They started last year they would expel him, they would remove him from the party , they should go and do whatever they feel they should do , enough of all these threats every time” .
On what cause the threat, Ogunleye said “because of the fact that the former governor commended governor Biodun Oyebanji for doing well in the state and they termed that as an anti party activities . this proponents making the suggestion that the former governor be expelled for anti party activities ,majority of them worked against PDP in the last governorship election in Ekiti state. ,90 percent of them making this allegation are people that left the party and worked for social Democratic Party,SDP, Engineer Segun Oni. What do you termed that? Is that intraparty or interparty? Are they not guilty of what they alleged the governor to have done? Majority of them are the people the party should penalized for the fact that they worked against the party in the gubernatorial election held last year. Majority of them left the party and went to SDP ,they said they were not satisfied with the primary election conducted by the PDP which was free and fair ,they went ahead and worked against the party ,the party lost the governorship election, they are coming back to the party again saying fayose should be expelled .
“If they said they want to put the house in order, everybody should be involved, everybody should be reconciled. PDP is a party, its not owned by anybody , it is not that some people should come together and be behaving as if the party is their inheritance, or the party is their sole property,, its not done that way . PDP is a large party anyone can be aggrieved, everybody should be reconciled together. For example, if you are saying you want to expel governor fayose from the party , that means you are expelling all his supporters from the party , how will the party move forward?
“What impression did they have that Fayose is darling with the APC, has APC given him a political appointment ? fayose is a stakeholder in the state, he has right to make comment, to say things when its good and when its bad . most of these critical stakeholders, the time will come when we are going to expose all of them , majority of them are the people that send messages to the governor ,send emissary to the governor for one favour or the other , they want to associate with the governor in the night and be PDP in the aftternoon . they should be careful, we are watching them too!.
“PDP should do proper and genuine reconciliation in the interest of the party, they should not be showing hatred to people, I was a former commissioner in Ekiti state , I have a long term relationship with governor biodun Oyebanji and im PDP, so because I have relationship with him and I’m in PDP, I should not greet him again , I should not talk to him because of politics, I wont do that ,he remains my family friend and that will be , the former governor fayose is ever ready to play his role as a leader in the PDP, but by the time some people gather together and start threatening a two term governor ,is that normal,?
” A governor that serves his state for 8 years , some people would now sit down somewhere threatening they would expel him, if they put their house in order and give respect to whom respect is due everybody would come together and I’m sure the former governor will work with everybody “, the PDP Chieftain stated.