Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is in the news again.
Predictably, for the wrong reason.
Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has accused Governor Kayode Fayemi and his loyalists of hijacking the process of electing officials of the party in next Saturday’s ward congress.
Ojudu, who does not see eye-to-eye with Fayemi, alleged that the governor, in collaboration with the Paul Omotoso-led Caretaker Committee, had hijacked the nomination form “in favour of their interest to the detriment of all other APC members” in the state.
The Presidential aide spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Saturday, saying the development was part of the game plan to edge out APC members who do not belong to Fayemi’s camp from vying for positions in the ward congress.
He alleged the panel from the National Secretariat left the state without doing anything after the governor’s camp reached out to them.
Ojudu said: “The mandate was that they should stay and sell the form for every party member interested.
“Governors had come to Abuja to demand for the form but the committee managing the party said no.
“They invited all chairmen of the state branches and briefed them on the need to allow all members interested in contesting access to the form.
” When the folks from Abuja arrived Ado-Ekiti yesterday (Friday), they went straight to the party secretariat, negotiated with the chairman, got paid and handed over the form to him and returned immediately to Abuja.
“If the forms were meant for the state chairmen, it would have been handed over to them last week when they were invited to Abuja.”
Ojudu noted members of the party who had paid money into the party’s coffer via a bank account were being denied access to the forms by the party’s leadership in the state.
He called on the Governor Mala Buni-led caretaker committee to caution Fayemi to allow conduct of the congresses be guided by transparency, fairness and the principle of internal democracy.
He warned any attempt to endorse consensus arrangement for the congress would be resisted by leaders, adding that the system, if used, would spell doom for the party ahead of the 2022 governorship election.
He said party leaders will not accept any attempt to browbeat APC members into adopting an unpopular consensus arrangements, warning that the chapter risks implosion if the irregularities being perpetrated ahead of the congresses were not addressed.
But, APC caretaker Publicity Secretary, Ade Ajayi, denied all the allegations, describing them as concocted lies without any modicum of truth.
He maintained those raising alarm about next Saturday’s congress are strangers who have no idea of workings within the party, assuring members that interests would be given a level-playing ground.
He said that the congress committee set up by the state are working round and meeting stakeholders within the party towards ensuring a free, fair and credible congress.
