Former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party, the main opposition party (PDP).
Fayose announced his resignation from the PDP while appearing as a guest on ARISE News yesterday. Fayose served as Governor of Ekiti State on the PDP ticket from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2015.
His decision to leave the party, however, appears to be linked to perceived irreconcilable differences in the PDP, which he claims has fractured the party.
He said: “Let me say this, from today(yesterday) I stay off PDP. In party politics there are certain facts you must be able to speak. I am 62 and I can’t, at this age, begin lying. When something is wrong with your family, confess.”
The former governor, who claimed to have fought for the party’s interests over the years, blamed the PDP’s loss in the presidential election on the party’s leadership.
According to him, the PDP was already fractured before the election, with so many disgruntled aspirants who were allegedly duped by the party’s leadership on the one hand and the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s, inability to reach an agreement with the G-5 governors on the other.
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Fayose traced the PDP’s problems back to the North-West zonal congress, which he claimed was rigged against Rabiu Kwankwaso in favor of Aminu Tambuwal, prompting the latter to leave the party.
“I warned Atiku that the problem will consume PDP. I told him there was danger ahead,” he said, adding that the G-5 governors demanded that Atiku make an official announcement to run for only one term and hand over to any member in the south but “Ayu was leading Atiku to Golgotha.”
Fayose warned the Labour Party’s candidate and second-place finisher in the presidential polls, Peter Obi, to “run away from the PDP” because the opposition’s current ovation has nothing to do with the PDP.
He believes that if the PDP had believed in Obi, he would have given him the party’s ticket.
He praised Obi’s courage in defeating Tinubu in Lagos, describing him as “a phenomenon” and “the man of the moment,” emphasizing that Obi’s victory in Lagos demonstrated that things have changed.
He argued that Obi’s victory in Lagos demonstrated that the process was transparent, and thus the election result should be accepted by all.
Fayose attributed the polls’ credibility to the use of the BVAS, which he claims is responsible for a more realistic number of voters than in the past, when over a million votes were cast in some Northern states.
He did, however, criticize some of the protesters who called for the elections to be canceled, describing them as PDP paid agents.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
