Olujimi finally speaks on Ekiti PDP Congress

Senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial district, Biodun Olujimi, on Monday, August 31, has spoken about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congress which was conducted on Saturday in the state.

The lawmaker described the PDP congress in the state at the weekend as a failure.

Olujimi who spoke while answering questions from reporters in Abuja, said that despite challenges, she has no plans to leave the PDP.

She blamed the National secretariat of the party for the parallel congress conducted in Ekiti state.

She said that those fighting her thought that she would give up and abandon the party, but said she have resolved to stay in the party at her own terms.

Olujimi said: “I believe that is the way the national body wants it (Congress) because from the start, the Congress was built to fail.

“A congress that happened and there was no delegate list and no official of the Independent National Electoral Commission was on ground to supervise it.

“The police did not also give security backing and there was no sufficient information.

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“The ward congress was not done but the National secretariat of the party gave former governor Fayose the opportunity to write names of delegates even in my senatorial district where he did not support me as the candidate of the party in 2019 National Assembly elections.

“He wrote all the list and the party took it from him. The party asked him to concede two local government areas to him because my people did not allow his people to come in there.

“I have been the only one managing the party with my other colleagues. If the party had wanted to do a credible Congress, they should have done the three ad hoc delegates because that was what our constitution provided for.

“The list did not go, yet they said they held a congress to fill in the post. So, our group decided to hold parallel congress too if what the party wanted to promote was illegality and impunity.

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“We will stand on what we have done until something major is done about it.

“The National Executive of the party is behind the former governor, if not, why did they allow him to write every list including my senatorial district?

“The caretaker committee Chairman of the party in the state declined to hold the state Congress citing the crisis in the party but the National secretariat directed the Secretary of the caretaker committee to conduct the illegal Congress which he did.”

She denied that Governor Kayode Fayemi is behind her faction of PDP in Ekiti State.

“I have not even spoken to him; the truth of the matter is that I am a person that fights for justice.

“I don’t care what the people say, it doesn’t matter to me. Even if he (Fayemi), is talking to me, why not?

“When the party where I have made such sacrifice did not see anything good in what we have done.

“So, if anybody else talks to me, it won’t negate anything. I am not being talked to but I am going to fight for justice, fairness and equity.

“The only way we can move forward is to call the former governor to order but everybody is dodging it.

“Nobody wants to do it but to massage ego. The minute that was not done, peace will elude the party in the state. Unless the party speaks truth to power, we will be where we are.

“At first, I thought when you put in so much on something and some people don’t want you, you leave but on second thought, I said it won’t be a person that would force me out of the PDP because I came in on my own volition. I am going to stay in it on my terms.”

On how she emerged as a factional leader of the PDP, Olujimi said: “I take it as a great compliment that I’m leading a faction of a political party against a former governor in a cosmopolitan state like Ekiti.

“The truth of the matter is that I did not choose to lead a faction. Some people came together and said that they were against a particular way of handling the party.

“They were against violence, imposition, impunity and all forms that went against democratic tenets of the management of a political party especially as it has been exhibited severally in Ekiti State.

“Those who came together said they need a face to the movement that is how I became the face of the movement. I am not the only one.

“It is a collection of leaders of the PDP of which so many people are part of, including Senator Duro Faseyi and 12 other leaders.”

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