Ekiti 2022: Crisis rocks Fayemi camp as governor alleged pick preferred candidate

The crisis rocking the camp of Governor Kayode Fayemi in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State over alleged picked a preferred candidate for the 2022 governorship election.

Newsflash Nigeria had reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the timetable for conducting the Ekiti governorship poll.

According to the INEC timetable, the conduct of the party primaries in Ekiti is between January 4 to January 29, 2022, and the ground is being tilled for the coming governorship election in Ekiti State billed for June 18, 2022.

The National body of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has yet released the timetable for conducting the party primary but other parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fixed the governorship primary to January 28, 2022.

Some party members of the Fayemi group named “TokanTokan” alleged that the governor is backing the aspiration of the Secretary to the State Government, Biodun Oyebanji.

The camps of the governor have circulated the news on the social media space on Tuesday morning, littered with a narrative that Gov Fayemi has selected Biodun Oyebanji as his successor.

Some of the Fayemi camps wrote: “Ekiti 2022, Mr solution, HBO” while some uploaded the picture of Biodun Oyebanji, tagged with Bisi Fayemi, the wife of the governor.

Oyebanji hails from Ikogosi Ekiti in Ekiti Central Senatorial district.

Last week, some party members who spoke to Newsflash Nigeria alleged that the wife of governor Fayemi, Bisi was backing the aspiration of Biodun Oyebanji, against the Governor’s wish.

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They warned the First Lady against imposing Oyebanji on the party, adding that her husband was prepared to embrace equity by considering someone in Ekiti-South Senatorial District for the governorship ticket.

“The First Lady may end up losing her respect should she work against an attempt by APC to zone the governorship ticket to Ekiti South. All party leaders including the Governor are gradually empathising and embracing zoning with the exception of Mrs Fayemi, who still believed that APC has no zoning in its constitution,” an APC member told Newsflash Nigeria.

“Maybe we should counsel her to have a retrospect of how her husband became the governorship candidate of the Action Congress in 2007; Fayemi clinching the ticket then was accomplished on the strength of zoning and the next political dispensation won’t be an exemption for the present agitations for zoning and what was obtainable then are similar.”

Another party member, Victor Omogbemile said, “We learnt from good authority that Governor Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Senator Dayo Adeyeye had silently agreed that the South should produce the next governor.

“The party leadership at the national under Governor Mai Mala Buni, is aware of the fact that the next governor in Ekiti should emerge via zoning modality. Having a reminiscence of what transpired in 2007, the people of the North made agitations on the basis that the two democratically elected governors before then, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Ayodele Fayose were from the Central and they believed that other zones should be given the opportunity.

“Our conclusion is that, it stabs logic on its head for Mrs Fayemi to now be resisting the same system that brought the respect she enjoys.”

Omogbemile who is the convener of Ekiti Youths for Equity alleged that Mrs Fayemi poking her nose into issues of politics had made some party members to believe she was only trying to pay back Oyebanji for being a good boy whose office was being used as a conduit pipe to siphon monies running into millions since 2018.

“Mrs Fayemi must dispel this rumour by allowing the party to pick whoever they deem suitable for the ticket, particularly allowing a candidate from the South to emerge for her to keep her respect and honour,” he said.

Oyebanji was a former university lecturer, a banker, private businessman astute administrator and consummate politician.

He was a Special Assistant on Legislative Matters to the first governor of Ekiti State, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, before he later became his Chief of Staff.

According to a recent interview by Hon. Dapo Karonwi, it was in Oyebanji that Adebayo had confided his intention of handing over to Dr. Kayode Fayemi should he win a second term in 2003. It would also be recalled that he was the youngest member and secretary of the Movement for the Creation of Ekiti, which had lobbied the late General Abacha for the creation of the State in 1996.

In the first term of the current governor, he served as Director-General, Office of Transformation, Strategy and Delivery; Commissioner of Integration and Inter-governmental Relations; and later on, Commissioner of Budget and Economic Planning. He is the most experienced politician currently serving in government.

He has managed the executive-legislature relations, served as Chief of Staff, served as the policy coordinator of government in the OTSD, managed the economy of the state, served as an interface between the State and the Federal Government, international partners and on regional matters, where he must have been well exposed to issues around regional collaboration and the DAWN Commission activities. As SSG, he currently manages the security apparatus and is the chief coordinator of government programmes, policies and activities.

Meanwhile, the state chairman of the party, Mr Paul Omotosho, has denied being told and instructed to work for Biodun Oyebanji by Governor Kayode Fayemi.

He said Gov Fayemi never had any meeting with anybody in Ekiti on Monday before he left for Anambra and Abuja. And that the decision of who is to choose can not be single-handedly taken by Gov Fayemi.

However, the APC governorship aspirants hopeful but yet declare ambition are: Olawale Fapohunda (SAN), Rt. Hon. Femi Bamisile, Hon. Makinde Araoye, Mr. Ademola Popoola,  Biodun Oyebanji, Dr Oluwole Oluyede, Abiodun Aluko and Engr. Kayode Ojo.

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