By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Mr. Paul Omotoso, has told Governor Ayodele Fayose to drop the idea of dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join APC, saying the governor is not wanted by party members.
Fayose had on Monday threatened to dump the PDP if his rights were being abridged by those who belonged to the camp of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and 2019 presidential candidate of the party.
The state APC chairman said the chairmen of all wards in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government, where Fayose hailed from and those in 13 wards where the governor lives and runs his business have told the governor to forget his plans to dump PDP to join APC until he clears himself of several criminal cases hanging on his neck.
Fayose gave a hint of his plans a few days ago when he expressed displeasure at the just-concluded presidential primary of PDP, threatening to dump the party for another party.
But the Publicity Secretary of the APC in the state, Mr. Ade Ajayi, advised the outgoing governor to conclude his court cases bordering on sundry alleged crimes before contemplating to join APC.
He said: “We want to prove to the world that APC will not provide sanctuary for criminal suspects, political prostitutes and lepers. We will never admit such character to this party and we advise Fayose to play his politics of destruction somewhere else.
“Fayose’s criminal prosecution on 2005 poultry project fraud resumes on November 4, 2018. Fayose cannot turn Ekiti APC to a haven and sanctuary for criminal suspects and we advise him to forget any plan to smear Ekiti APC with criminal records.”
In a statement, Omotoso told Fayose that APC “is a political party bounded by common ideals of integrity, openness, discipline and commitment to common goal of progressive governance, which Fayose does not possess or believe as can be seen from his style of politics and
governance”.
He added: “Fayose over the years abused, disrepected and openly denigrated President Muhammadu Buhari, the leader of our party who is also the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“Fayose is coming to destroy our party and ensure President Buhari does not get a second term in 2019 and we won’t allow Fayose’s evil plan to materialise.”
Omotoso vowed that on no account would Fayose be admitted into the APC. He advised Fayose to look elsewhere for a political party that he will destroy after destroying three national political parties when he found it difficult to control the parties.
“Fayose said many times that he would destroy APC. He destroyed Labour Party (LP), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) and at a time he also destroyed PDP before his current activities that led to the present sorry state of PDP in Ekiti State.
“APC is looking for builders and not destroyers in its fold. We will not accept this destroyer in our great party APC and we advise Fayose to look elsewhere towards his promoters outside the state so that he can destroy the cohesion of the party in the backyards of those
promoters,” Omotoso said.
