The crisis rocking the Ekiti State Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), took another dimension yesterday, Thursday, September 24, 2020, as groups allegedly loyal to former Governor Ayo Fayose and his erstwhile deputy, Senator Biodun Olujimi clashed over ownership of the Ikole local government Secretariat of the party.
The state Executive led by a former House of Representatives, Hon. Kehinde Odebunmi was said to have been scheduled for the inuaguration of the newly elected party executive in the area, when suddenly, a pocket of some harm-to-teeth thugs alleged to have been sponsored by a group loyal to Fayose stormed the party office to disperse the party members and executives sitted awaiting the arrival of the Chairman, Odebunmi for the inuaguration.
Meanwhile, the party members overpowered the sponsored thugs as they took to heel the moment the people raised the alarm and the thugs were chased from different directions.
If recalled, the party’s March 7 Ward Congress has continued to generate disunity among the opposition PDP in the state as groups have approached Courts seeking clarification over the legality of the exercise. However, the both camps who perherps lack confidence in the NWC of the party had went ahead to conduct parallel Local Government and State Congresses and Two State Chairmen have consequently emerged with Senator Olujimi group having Kehinde Odebunmi while Fayose holding on to a former Commissioner for Environment, Bisi Kolawole as Chairmen, respectively.
Speaking with media, shortly after the Inuaguration, Kehinde Odebunmi said, “We congratulate the newly Inuagurated party executives in Ikole LG and we must sincerely commend them for their commitment to party ideals. They have today demonstrated thier readiness to resist any form of dictatorship and oppression in Ekiti PDP.”
The former Chairman of Ikole local government Council, Hon. (Mrs) Biola Olukayode-Ajayi, speaking with , said;
“We are optimistic that PDP will constitute the next government in Ekiti state. We already know where and what led to our defeat in the June 2018 governorship election and we are not ready to repeat such a grave error again and this is why we are resisting any form of backdoor manipulation by anyone against our collective struggle. And as for the Osoko group, they are only ranting on social media, deceiving the Ex-governor. They are less than 10 percent and it is rediculous to ever imagined that the minority would want to Lord over the larger party populace. We have only sent signals down to Mr Ayo Fayose that we are fully on ground, we have the people and we have the party. It is not going to be business as usual as we will be taking the boo by it’s horn because we are returning the power back to the people”. She said.