FORMER governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose has disclosed that he worked against his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the 25th February 2023 election.
Fayose revealed that he worked against Atiku “100%” because the “PDP has not been fair to me”.
Speaking Sunday night on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on 9yh of July 2023, the PDP stalwart said he worked for the victory of the then flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Ekiti in the last general elections.
“I never worked for PDP during the last election. I cannot work for two people at the same time,” he said on the programme.
“The reality is that I worked for Asiwaju (Tinubu). He is a respectable person from the South-West. It is the time of the South.”
Fayose, who met President Tinubu at Aso Villa in Abuja, on Thursday, 6th July 2023, expressed his grievances with the PDP, saying that the party suspended him and his son, Oluwajomiloju, despite that he has “suffered tremendously for PDP”.
“The same PDP, because I said it was the turn of the South, removed my son, suspended my son, expelled my son, suspended me. For a man that has suffered tremendously for PDP?” he queried.
The ex-governor, a member of an aggrieved group within the PDP known as the G-5 or the Integrity Group, said his party played games with Nigerians by giving its presidential ticket to Atiku, who is from Adamawa State in North-East Nigeria.
Fayose argued that with the expiration of the two-term tenure of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also from the North, a Southern Nigerian should be the next President of the country.
He however vowed to sue the PDP if the party takes disciplinary actions against him for supporting Tinubu in the last elections.
“If PDP takes action against me, I will take them to court,” the ex-governor stated. “If anybody tries to suppress my voice, I will say things more than this.”
Fayose further stated that his recent visit to President Tinubu was not connected to his court case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “Tinubu has no power to stop EFCC trial,” he said of the case which has lasted five years.
The PDP stalwart said he won’t accept any ministerial position from the President. He urged Tinubu to appoint a significant number of young Nigerians as well as women into his government
In the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State trounced Atiku in Fayose’s Ekiti State. Tinubu won in all 16 local government areas of the state.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Tinubu also won in 11 other states out of Nigeria’s 36 states. He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes almost two million votes more than Atiku, who polled 6,984,520 votes, and the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who secured 6,101,533 votes. Meanwhile, these figures, and other issues, are being contested at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
Eighteen-Eleven Media