The drama and controversies that followed last week’s primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State may affect the chances of the party in the forthcoming governorship election, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
Although the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has elected Bisi Kolawole as its candidate for the July 18 governorship election, the crisis over the party’s primary election may linger for a while. The party went into the primary with unresolved issues, which as predicted, has triggered post-primary rancour and consequently worsened the internal crisis rocking the party.
A former chairman of PDP in Ekiti State, Chief Bisi Kolawole, emerged as the flag bearer of the party after polling 671 to defeat ex-Governor Segun Oni, a former deputy governor of the state, Kolapo Olusola and others to win the ticket. In his acceptance speech, Kolawole said: “The result has been very clear, the process has been very clear, credible and it makes everybody happy.
I am very sure members of our party and our leaders are very happy because we have promised that once the process is very open and fair to all, they will all accept the result.” Despite Kolawole’s plea for other aspirants to accept the outcome of the exercise in good fate, there is no doubt that the rivalry between the Osoko Political Assembly led by former Governor Ayodele Fayose and the Repositioning Group led by Senator Biodun Olujimi has been rekindled.
Before the primary, the two groups among other things resolved to work together for a hitch-free ad hoc delegates’ congress on January 15 so that the emergence of the three ad hoc delegates per ward to vote in the primary would be acceptable to all sides. Before the conclusion of the congress, however, the aspirants cried foul, alleging that Fayose had manipulated the process and hijacked the exercise to favour his preferred aspirant, Kolawole. The accompanying protest pitched Fayose against almost all the aspirants.
This propelled the National Working Committee (NWC) to intervene to save the party. It, therefore, took critical decisions, including the nullification of the contentious ad hoc delegates’ congress and directed that only automatic and statutory delegates would vote in the primary. With that, the calculation among members and political watchers was that the governorship primary would be a keen contest if all the other aspirants, who had jointly fought the battle against the ad hoc congress, could come together and present a common aspirant. But this did not happen as the aspirants went to the primary still canvassing for votes from the delegates individually.
The first indication that all was not well with the primary as far as the majority of the aspirants were concerned showed when some delegates, despite the heavy presence of security men deployed for the exercise, faulted the list used by the Electoral Committee, chaired by Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel.
There was a noisy disturbance as some delegates raised objections to some names on the list, but this was soon settled as the accreditation process went on from one local government to the other. Emmanuel, who was not unaware of the intrigues among the delegates and aspirants in the build-up to the exercise, told the delegates on arrival that “there is no need for a Local Organising Committee. I came with enough men. I don’t want all these biases. We are going to hold a very simple and straightforward election.”
He added: “We are neutral. Everything is going to be very orderly. I am not in for all those intrigues that you people are trying to do here. Everybody must behave well. You must maintain discipline. Everything is going to be transparent. I have the authentic delegates’ list here. You can see it is stamped by the NWC.” Senator Olujimi was one of those who were not comfortable with the conduct of the primary, and as such she expressed disappointment and announced her withdrawal from the exercise, saying the system had been compromised in favour of Kolawole.
The aggrieved senator, who alleged that delegates for four of the six local governments in her senatorial district had been given to Fayose’s group, added that only 12 delegates could vote in her local government, Ekiti-East, while only 10 could vote in Gbonyin council, making a total of 22 were no fewer than 155 ought to have voted. She said: “I thought it was very unfair, unjust and unethical. It was disenfranchising me because of my gender or because the party feels I have not done enough for it.
Going forward from there would mean that I am condoning what is wrong. So, I thought my best was just to pull out and I pulled out. I did not step down. “They can continue with it. I will also internalize the problem, there will be some introspection, and then I will make a decision. Our delegates can vote for aspirants of their choice and then we meet afterwards and take a decision.
I had a lengthy discussion with Governor Emmanuel and he too was not aware until he brought out the list of Ekiti East Local Government and saw ‘undecided, yet to be decided’ etc on three sheets of paper with only 12 names that could vote on the top sheet. On the other one (for Gbonyin), he saw 10 names that could vote.”
Likewise, Oni accused the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu and Fayose of selling out. He alleged that duo sold out the party’s candidacy to the All Progressives Congress (APC) by foisting a ‘political weakling’ as the party’s candidate, primarily to make the forthcoming governorship poll an easy ride for APC.
In a statement by the Director-General of his campaign organisation, Hon. Yemi Arokodare, Oni said the outcome of the party’s primary was orchestrated by Fayose to sell the party to the ruling APC. He noted that the emergence Kolawole, a protégé of Fayose, was part of surreptitious plans to thwart the bid of the majority of PDP members in Ekiti to form the next government.
The former governor said it is an open secret in Ekiti political circle that the PDP governorship ticket was handed over to Kolawole is a duplicate copy of the APC ticket, adding that Ekiti is already a giveaway to the APC. He said: “It is a big shame that the National Working Committee of the PDP could not see through this deception but deliberately connived with Fayose to force Governor Udom Emmanuel on the Ekiti process to achieve a predetermined hatchet job.
Quote
“The National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Iyorchia Ayu should explain to party members nationwide the import of Section 45 (a) Part VI under the General Provisions of the Electoral Guidelines for Primary after the adhoc election was nullified. Any officer or member of the party who fails refuses or neglects to carry out his duties about these guidelines on the general conduct of the primary elections or who obstructs, defies, or in any manner hinders, impedes or subverts the implementation or success of these guidelines is guilty of gross misconduct and shall be brought before the National Disciplinary Committee of the party for disciplinary action.
“Ayu must tell the world why he cannot trust any other PDP governor except Udom Emmanuel to conduct the two exercises in Ekiti State when it is evident that Fayose had conducted Udom’s 2019 Primary. It is now crystal clear that the plot ab initio was for the two buddies of Fayose from Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Enoidem (former Legal Adviser of the PDP) and Governor Udom Emmanuel, to conduct the two exercises in favour of Fayose and the NWC fell for it. “Ayu deliberately indulged Fayose, who attempted to truncate the national convention that produce the current NWC and never asked him how he intended to win Ekiti for the PDP with the weakest of the aspirants, even when he could not do so as a sitting governor with his deputy in 2018.”
But Governor Emmanuel has appealed to aspirants in the Ekiti PDP governorship primary to support Kolawole.“Ayu must tell the world why he cannot trust any other PDP governor except Udom Emmanuel to conduct the two exercises in Ekiti State when it is evident that Fayose had conducted Udom’s 2019 Primary. It is now crystal clear that the plot ab initio was for the two buddies of Fayose from Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Enoidem (former Legal Adviser of the PDP) and Governor Udom Emmanuel, to conduct the two exercises in favour of Fayose and the NWC fell for it. “Ayu deliberately indulged Fayose, who attempted to truncate the national convention that produce the current NWC and never asked him how he intended to win Ekiti for the PDP with the weakest of the aspirants, even when he could not do so as a sitting governor with his deputy in 2018.”
The governor, who thanked the national chairman and the NWC for the opportunity to serve the party, described it as a privilege he could not take for granted. Expressing satisfaction with the integrity and conduct of the primary election, Emmanuel described the exercise as transparent, fair and credible and therefore called on all participants in the contest to acknowledge the supremacy of the party and pull forces together to ensure victory for the party in the impending Ekiti gubernatorial election.
His words: “I think personally, I’m satisfied that the process was credible and I also believe almost 100 per cent of the people that watched it will give us credit that it was a very credible, transparent, free and fair election. My advice is to let all of them go back and work together. “We have only one seat and only one person can occupy that seat. If after all what the party did at the NWC to accommodate all aspirants, the people then spoke and said this is the person we want to bear the flag of the party, I think all others should just join hands and work together. Party is supreme, let the party win then they can all sit down and talk.”
The Akwa Ibom State governor described as false and speculative, insinuations of unfair treatment and disenfranchisement of some aspirants, maintaining that the process was devoid of malpractices and created no room for expression of ill behaviours that would have given grounds to discredit the exercise. According to him, such insinuations were indications of pre-conceived defeat. He maintained that the committee had an authentic list from the NWC, which it followed religiously, stressing that no single person voted without being accredited and that there was none accredited that was not allowed to vote.
“I’ve heard a whole lot, how some aspirants, even before the process started, went to the press. I think they knew the outcome before we went into the election. Some of them came to make trouble but by the time they saw that there was no room for such trouble, they knew there’s no way they could have made it.
“All the aspirants gave us a very excellent mark for all the processes, from accreditation to voting, to sorting, to counting, even to declaration of result. Even after that, we gave them the opportunity to speak if they were satisfied. We also had to make sure one of the international television stations beamed it live so everybody could see the processes,” he said. Notwithstanding the appeal by Governor Emmanuel, the leadership of PDP in the state and the NWC are faced with the task of reconciling the aggrieved members ahead of the governorship election but how the party will achieve the desired reconciliation is yet to be seen.
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