The permutations of the 2022 Ekiti governorship election tear both the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart over the internal wrangling and factional groups.
Both the APC and the PDP are at present plagued by groupings and internal wrangling in a bid to take over the soul of the two parties.
In the PDP, the leadership tussle, which began between former governor Ayodele Fayose and National Assembly member, Senator Biodun Olujimi, shortly after Fayose left office in 2018, has today snowballed into the party splitting into factions.
This followed the conduct of parallel congresses at the ward, council and state levels, and the emergence of parallel executive committees at all levels with one loyal to Fayose, while the other follows Olujimi.
In the APC, the dust raised by the conduct of the governorship primaries in 2018 has refused to settle as an aggrieved group, which feels its members are being marginalised, has challenged the congresses that produced the party executive committees at all levels.
The situation recently led to the suspension of some APC bigwigs in the state, including the Political Adviser to the President, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, and counter suspension of Governor Kayode Fayemi and the APC state executive headed by Paul Omotoso.
The Punch Newspaper journalist, Abiodun Nejo writes that peace and unity of purpose have continued to elude the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State as internal wrangling and factional groups have held them down.
Perhaps both the governing All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State are living under the illusion that the state’s governorship election in 2022 is still far, hence the idea of leaving things to chance by allowing their internal crises to fester.
How the cookies crumbled in Ekiti APC
When the national headquarters of the APC, broke its silence over the crisis rocking its Ekiti State chapter, it addressed two aspects of nullifying the suspensions and as well authenticating the Omotoso-led State Working Committee.
But the poser is whether the Omotoso-led executive will accept in good faith the national body’s nullification of the indefinite suspension handed down to the aggrieved leaders.
Again, will the aggrieved leaders comprising Ojudu, Senator Tony Adeniyi, a former National Assembly spokesman, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, and others accept the national body’s authentication of the Omotoso-led executive, whose members they insisted were not validly elected and withdraw their cases from court?
These are among the issues that the APC National Reconciliatory Committee led by the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, set up to intervene in the Ekiti APC crisis and resolve it, will be confronted with.
The party in the state, which has been neck deep in crisis since the build up to the 2018 governorship primary/election, is facing the issue of the legitimacy or not of the executive committees at the ward, state and national levels as the protesting group dragged them to court, asking the judiciary to declare them invalid.
The situation degenerated to the suspension last Wednesday of the members of the group challenging the congresses that produced the executive committees, hinging the action on their refusal to withdraw their case in court against the party in disobedience to the directive of the APC national body.
However, on the same day, the group at its meeting suspended Fayemi and members of the Omotoso-led executive and announced Adeniyi as acting APC state chairman.
A statement by Fayemi’s Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, titled, ‘Governor Fayemi’s purported suspension: A joke taken too far’, described the Ojudu group members as impostors, stating, “Members of the group cannot hide under their recent suspension to announce a dubious suspension they lack the locus to handle.”
The national secretariat of the party had in a statement titled, ‘Disclaimer: Governor Fayemi, other purported ‘suspensions’ a nullity – APC’, signed by the party’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, said it had yet to receive any communication on the actions.
Nabena stated, “The attention of the national secretariat of the APC has been drawn to a purported and widely-reported ‘suspension’ of the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, as well as an earlier reported ‘indefinite suspension’ of some other party members in the state.
Political watchers were, however, quick to point out that the APC national body, by the statement, only ordered a return to the status quo as they wondered why the national body was silent on the genesis of the dirty fight among party members with a view to proffering lasting solutions.
The status quo, according to them, is that nobody has been suspended from the party and that Omotoso is the authentic state chairman of the party, which implies that the aggrieved party members can go ahead with their litigation challenging the congresses that produced the executive committees at the ward, council and state levels.
In the heat of the standoff between the group and the state APC, 15 aggrieved leaders, including Ojudu and Adeyeye, had in a position paper accused Fayemi of influencing party executive to alienate and victimise critics of his government and called on the national body to save the party from collapse by dissolving all Ekiti APC executive committees.
But a state APC stakeholders’ caucus, which met in Ado Ekiti in response to the crisis, resolved that “an ad hoc committee be constituted to address all grievances within the APC in the state and make recommendations to the party.”
The caucus also passed a vote of confidence n the governor and party executive committees across board in the state.
Shortly after, the party inaugurated an eight-man reconciliation and peace committee headed by Chief Awe, with a charge by Omotoso to maintain unity and sincerity of purpose for it to remain strong and victorious in all coming elections.
But at a time the effect of the reconciliatory efforts ought to be felt, events took a dramatic turn on September 15, when the state APC inaugurated an eight-member disciplinary committee chaired by a former House of Assembly Speaker, Patrick Ajibolamu, to investigate why some members violated the National Executive Committee’s resolution on litigation against the party.
The APC State Director of Publicity, Sam Oluwalana, said the action followed the directive of the NEC to the state chapter to “immediately set up a disciplinary committee to commence and complete the process of suspension of the affected members from the party.”
The affected members are Ojudu; son-in-law to Senator Bola Tinubu, Oyetunde Ojo; former governorship aspirant, Dr Wole Oluyede; Ayo Ajibade; Femi Adeleye; Chief Akin Akomolafe; Bamigboye Adegoroye; Olusoga Owoeye; Dele Afolabi; Toyin Oluwasola; Ben Oguntuase and Bunmi Ogunleye.
But just as Ojudu describes the move as “laughable and against the party constitution,” the 12 affected persons, who suspected foul play in the state chapter’s move, vowed not to appear before the committee based on their conviction that the national body had no hand in the matter.
Their solicitor, Chief Ademuyiwa Adeniyi, in a letter titled, ‘Re: Invitation to appear before Investigative Disciplinary Committee’, stated, “Information at the disposal of our clients is contrary to your claim that the APC National Caretaker Committee directed the Ekiti State chapter to set up a disciplinary committee to try members who are exercising their fundamental human rights.”
The affected leaders, in a proactive move, headed for an Ado Ekiti High Court on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, to seek, among others, “an order of interim injunction restraining all the defendants (Ekiti APC and others) from taking any step by way of trying, suspending or expelling the applicants from the APC pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
But the state APC wielded the big stick on Wednesday by slamming an indefinite suspension on Ojudu and 10 other leaders for alleged disobedience to the directive of the party’s NEC.
Ojudu and others, had in a statement titled: ‘Before our impending expulsion from APC’, by the group’s spokesperson, Prince Bamgboye Adegoroye, earlier that Wednesday, said the APC would crumble in Ekiti if they were expelled as being allegedly hatched by Fayemi.
The crisis, however, took a new turn when the aggrieved members rose from a meeting later on Wednesday and announced Senator Tony Adeniyi as the acting SEC chairman, following which they announced the suspension of Fayemi from the APC for alleged anti-party activities.
In the communique signed by Senator Adeniyi; Senator Ojudu; Senator Adeyeye; Bimbo Daramola, Robinson Ajiboye; Oyetunde Ojo; former Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin; and Femi
Adeleye, the group also described as illegal the Omotoso-led state executive and restrained them from parading themselves as such, while it affirmed the executive headed by Adeniyi in acting capacity as the authentic.
In the PDP, it’s fight to the finish
A new twist was introduced to the leadership crisis rocking the PDP in Ekiti when on May 7, parallel ward congresses of the party were held with each side claiming that its was the authentic and acceptable one.
Although the PDP national body lends support to the executive of the faction loyal to Fayose and recommends them as the authentic, Olujimi’s loyalists are saying the Prince Uche Secondus NWC should tell it to the marines, accusing the national leadership of bias and intent of destroying the party in the state.
While those loyal to Olujimi said they held their congresses in the presence of the Independent National Electoral Commission and law enforcement agents and that the Fayose group did not hold any congress but merely wrote names, those loyal to the former governor said their congresses were conducted by the validly appointed ward congress electoral officers led by the Taraba State Deputy Governor, Haruna Manu.
The situation compelled the Olujimi faction to approach a Federal High Court to seek among others, an interim order of the court restraining the national body from recognising the list from the ‘purported’ congresses of the Fayose faction.
But the recognition by the national body of the Fayose group’s congresses during the pendency of the suit, which has got to the Appeal Court, and its instruction for the conduct of the local government and state congresses was the last straw that broke the camel’s back as the actions brought about the split of the party into factions.
Just as it happened at the ward level, parallel congresses were also held at the council and state levels. A former House of Assembly member, Bisi Kolawole, emerged the state chairman for the Fayose faction, while a former House of Representatives member, Kehinde Odebunmi, was elected chairman by the Olujimi faction.
Even in the buildup to the council and state congresses, there was disagreement between the NWC and Senator Hosea Agboola, the Chairman of the Ekiti State PDP Caretaker Committee set up by the national body to resolve the differences in the state chapter, ensure unity and conclude the congresses.
The Secretary of the committee, Prince Diran Odeyemi, who shed light on the disagreement, which saw Agboola shun the congresses, said, “The chairman (Agboola) had sympathy towards having the party to share the positions, but the party said ‘no, we can’t be sharing positions, because we are not Father Christmas. This is politics and democracy; if they agree, well for them’.
A PDP chieftain and leader of the Atunse Ekiti, a political movement of Oni’s supporters, Chief Ayo Omolade, expressed concern that the internal wrangling in the party, if not resolved on time, could be costly.
