Despite accepting outcome, Fayose calls PDP south-west congress ‘a scam’

Ayodele Fayose, former governor of Ekiti, says the election of officers at the south-west zonal congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was a “scam”.

Fayose made the allegation when he featured on Politics Today, a Channels Television Programme, on Wednesday.

On Monday, the party held a congress to determine its zonal leaders in the region, after a series of postponements and leadership tussle.

The congress was expected to lay to rest the leadership tussle between Fayose and Makinde, who were at loggerheads over who controls the party in the zone.

At the much-awaited congress in Osogbo, Taofeeq Arapaja, a former deputy governor of Oyo state who was backed by Makinde, won the PDP south-west chairmanship seat with 343 votes to defeat Eddy Olafeso, the immediate past national vice-chairman (south-west) — and a candidate of Fayose — who polled 330 votes.

Speaking on what transpired at the election, Fayose claimed that the election was rigged, adding that forces behind Makinde influenced the outcome of the election.

He, however, noted that he has accepted the outcome of the election and embraced Makinde, not because he was defeated but for the advancement of the party.

“For me, as to that election, it was a scam but I must agree as a leader of the PDP. I have been working for this party. I am one of the voices that cannot be forgotten in the PDP,” he said.

“And I will not sit down here and say because of 13 votes, because of manipulation, the party must not move forward.”

During the interview, the presenter showed Fayose a video, which was said to have been recorded before the election, wherein some men were threatening to kill the former governor if he comes to the venue of the congress.

Reacting, the former governor claimed that those threatening to kill him are thugs from the road transport workers union in Oyo, adding that the video depicts the kind of characters behind the Oyo governor.

“I have seen this video; what this gentleman was saying at the time they came to the venue. They said ‘Fayose, we are waiting for you here; we are going to kill you’. This is the chairman of road transport workers in Oyo state,” he said.

“These people came with governor Makinde’s convoy. Everybody knows. Who is this man? Is he the road transport worker in Ekiti? This is enough to show the whole world. If governor Makinde, a first-term two years old governor — yet-to-be two years old governor — is parading characters like this, it simply shows the kind of people behind him.

“This is shameful for our party. I take responsibility for that. In the 21st century, thuggery is shameful for our party. Remember I was in Ondo; these people came to Ondo to attack me. These same people came to Ondo and I told governor Makinde. So I’m glad the whole world is seeing this.

“Governor Makinde looks quiet but dirty. Parading these people to wait for me; they are over a thousand. They are doing this to me in the video, ‘we will cut your neck.’ That was why I made up my mind that I must attend that congress, even if I die there, I die.”