Fayemi making us irrelevant, says group loyal to Oni

Less than 20 days to the governorship election in Ekiti state, a group loyal to Segun Oni, a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has accused Kayode Fayemi, flagbearer of the party, of infraction.

In a rescheduled primary election in May, Fayemi defeated 32 other aspirants including Oni who came second in the contest supervised by Tanko Al-Makura, governor of Nasarawa state.

Fayemi, in his acceptance speech, promised to work closely with those he defeated.

Oni’s supporters, however, have accused the governorship aspirant of neglecting them.

But, he put a caveat, that if at any stage they are trying to marginalise us, he will move the other way.

“Immediately after the primary, Segun Oni gave all of us a marching order that we should team up with Dr Fayemi,” Bunmi Ojo, a close associate and personal assistant to Oni when he was governor between 2007 and 2010, told TheCable in a telephone interview.

“The party constituted committees that will pilot the campaign. They put some of us in the committee. Immediately after that, they stopped all the committee meetings. Dr Fayemi went ahead and constituted another 15 man campaign committee and populated it with his own boys.

“That was without our consent… he jettisoned the committee set up by the party. The handwriting is clear, and this shows the kind of government he would run when he gets there. We don’t need a soothsayer or a political predictor to tell us that is what he’s going to do when he gets to power.

“Constituting another committee without anybody from the other side, we see as an affront.”

Ojo also alleged that Fayemi did not include the name of Jide Awe, the state party chairman, on the list sent when President Muhammadu Buhari invited stakeholders to Abuja.

“Dr Fayemi wrote the list and because the state party chairman is an Oni person, he did not put his name. Who is supposed to be the number 1 person on such list? His name eventually got there because Engineer Oni protested to Oyegun,” he said.

“Even when the appointment of deputy governor was to be made, Dr Fayemi didn’t consult our group, and you want us to continue like that? If this injustice has been done against our group, I don’t see any reason for the continued support. Since they want to make us irrelevant, we will make ourselves relevant.”

Reacting, Wole Olujobi, director of media and publicity for the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, said there is no truth in the allegation.

“These people who say they are from Engineer Segun Oni’s camp, including Taiwo Olatunbosun who is the spokesperson of the party, are carried along,” he told TheCable.

“Just last night, a member of the exco, supposedly close to Oni was in the meeting. It is true there is an election committee, there is another we call campaign organisation; there is a working relationship between these two. The directorate that these people are talking about that they were not included is a kind of an implementing organ for whatever those in the committee would have recommended for implementation.

“As far as I am concerned, people have been talking about Jide Awe not being carried along, that’s not correct. Jide Awe is the chairman of the general purpose of the campaign.”

Olujobi also dismissed the report of a case puportedly filed to challenge Fayemi’s candidacy, saying it is a distraction.

“Engineer Segun Oni didn’t file any case. We saw that yesterday and we found it was a ruse. You know people in Fayose’s camp are trying all strategies to distract us. They are lies coming from the camp of Fayose to distabilise us,” he said.

But Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party, and Bisi Akande, interim chairman of the APC, have asked Oni to publicly dissociate himself from “the suit”.