From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta and Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Senator Buruji Kashamu, has described Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose as ‘unfit’ to be chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum.
In a statement signed by Kashamu, yesterday, in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, he wondered why governors of the opposition party, in need of rebranding and repositioning would choose Fayose, whom he described as a ‘liability’ as their chairman.
The lawmaker insisted Fayose will further polarise the party and destroy it.
“It is not that his emergence as the chairman of the Forum means anything to me. But, as a committed and loyal party man, it gives me concern that, instead of taking steps that will foster peace and unity, we are doing things that will widen the gap and cause more disunity. Those who chose him should have a rethink in the interest of the party that is striving hard to return to power,” he said.
He chided the Ekiti State governor for always wanting to be the chairman of the Forum, saying: “That was why he had resentment towards Mimiko upon his emergence as the chairman of the Forum in 2015.
“While I concede to our governors the right to choose whoever they want to lead them, my point is that they should have settled for a balanced, more experienced and mature person to lead the Forum, not a cantankerous, divisive and unstable character like Fayose who snaps at the slightest provocation.
“I know that the Forum boasts of governors who are true leaders, not pretenders. There are those who are better educated, well-cultured and better exposed who are not working against the interest of their people and country. We have governors who have held public offices since the return to democracy in 1999, but who are untainted. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) does not have any case against them. Those are the kind of people that could have been chosen to lead the Forum.”
The senator, therefore, called on the PDP to either reject Fayose’s chairmanship of the Forum or strictly restrict him to running the affairs of the Forum, while well-meaning leaders and elders of the party who are not part of the crisis bedevilling the party are allowed to take charge of the affairs of the party and run it properly and legitimately.
Swiftly, Fayose replied Kashamu and urged him to, first, aspire to be a governor like him before saying anything about the governors’ forum.
“Nigerians should ask him whether he is a governor? What is the business of a senator, who is not even a principal officer in the Senate with who becomes the chairman of the Forum?
“If he wants to have a say on who becomes chairman, he should also try and become a governor like Fayose, and a respected, forthright, committed partyman and courageous one, too.
“As it is now, he is not a governor and he has never been a governor, and as such does not know how the Forum operates. He, therefore lacks moral rights to comment on who becomes chairman of the Forum.
Meanwhile, Senator Ahmed Markafi’s faction of the PDP in the South-West has blamed the defeat of the party’s candidate, Eyitayo Jegede in the Ondo State governorship election on members of Ali Modu-Sherif’s faction.
The party alleged that Ibrahim connived with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari before and during the poll.
National Vice Chairman (South-West) of the party, Eddy Olafeso, in a statement issued by the party’s Zonal Secretary, Bunmi Jenyo, said: “The breakaway group, led by Modu-Sherif sponsored Ibrahim, through the back door of the judiciary and connived with the APC candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu, to destabilise PDP’s structure in Ondo State.
“It is imperative to stress that the breakaway group contributed to PDP’s defeat in Edo and Ondo states governorship elections in 2016 through the anti-party activities of its members.”
The party, therefore, condemned the recent claim by South-West leader of the Modu-Sherif faction, Makanjuola Ogundipe, that his group was loyal to the leadership of Markafi.
“It is obvious that the group, strictly loyal to former PDP national chairman, Senator Modu-Sheriff, having met its waterloo in the quest to lead the party, has now resorted to frivolous antics against the general will and aspirations of the PDP. The Ogundipe-led group has been frustrated by the soaring popularity of the majority, the Ahmed Makarfi-led leadership which is currently having the upper hand in the eyes of law.
“Ogundipe and his cohorts have now resorted to fallacies, heresy and blackmail instead of retracing their wrong steps back into the South-West PDP under the leadership of Eddy Olafeso. It is clear that Ogundipe and his cohorts are nothing else than political marauders, who are secretly loyal to and paid by the APC to jeopardise the stronghold of PDP for their selfish goals and personal aggrandisement.
“It is laughable, unspeakable and unacceptable that the aggrieved group that sponsored a case against PDP’s candidate, Jegede, would now start claiming to belong to Makarfi, who presented Jegede.”