Crisis in Ekiti PDP as factional chairman emerges

Political crisis Tuesday hit Ekiti State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) when some party officials rocked the boat and removed state party chairman, Idowu Faleye from office for alleged gross misconduct and briskly appointed another party chieftain as a replacement in acting capacity.

The state executive council of the party was said to have sidelined Governor Ayodele Fayose and quickly appointed Olatunde Olatunde, vice chairman, Ekiti North senatorial district, as acting chairman at an emergency meeting of party held at the PDP secretariat along Ajilosun road in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, pending the time the vacancy will be filled.

Although, the allegation of gross misconduct was clarified by state executive council who removed the party chairman, BusinessDay gathered that the alleged impeachment of the party chairman was not unconnected with the chairman’s failure to release N11 million given to the state executive council out of total fund allocated to them by PDP headquarters in the last general elections.

While addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti after the meeting, the new chairman, Olatunde claimed that the allegedly impeached PDP chairman “voluntarily resigned from office to correct the mistakes made in his appointment as the
state chairman, having come from the same Ward 1, Ido-Ekiti with the State Youth leader, coupled with his inefficiency in office”.

When asked whether the removal of the chairman was in connection with misunderstanding between Governor Fayose and Adamu Mu’azu, PDP national chairman, Olatunde denied that the removal had anything to do with the altercations going on between the two and the poor outing of PDP in the last elections.

He also added that the change in the state executive council had not been communicated to Governor Fayose, saying that Faleye’s removal was not an attempt to spite the governor and the governor remains a respectable leader of the party at the state level.

In a swift reaction, Faleye said he neither stepped down nor resigned his post as being declared by Olatunde, saying that nothing of such happened during the meeting and that “he remains authentic chairman of the party”.

Faleye said: “How will I resign from my duty post with overwhelming victory our party got in the state during the last elections, nobody impeached me neither did I step down for anybody. As far as I am concerned, I remain the authentic chairman of PDP in Ekiti State.

“Those who call themselves the new party officials are fighting me because of their honorarium which is about N11 million and I can’t sign a cheque without notifying and getting approval from our leader who is the governor of the state and I told them to be patient. They are fighting me because of that money,” Faleye further explained.