By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has officially split into two groups, with each group claiming to be legitimately constituted.
The congress of the party held on August 29, produced two set of executives, one loyal to former governor Ayo Fayose, and the other, a serving senator, Biodun Olujimi.
Until the congress, the party in the state was been administered by a caretaker committee whose life span ends on September 3. The congress to elect a validly executive was fixed for August 29, but the Fayose and Olujimi loyalists went to different venues to elect parallel officials for the party.
Fayose’s faction produced a former commissioner for environment in Ekiti State, Bisi Kolawole, as chairman, while the Olujimi’s faction elected a former member of the House of Representatives, Kehinde Odebunmi, as the helmsman for the party in Ekiti State.
Fayose and Olujimi don’t see eye-to-eye in the affairs of the party in Ekiti State. To effectively fight Olujimi, Fayose used reconciled with a former political adversary, and a former governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni.
“ There is no crack in Ekiti PDP. I would have been surprised if Engr Segun Oni has not been here today,” he said. Those with party positions, please, respect your leaders, because it will not be business as usual. We are prepared to support the new Exco for them to succeed,” he said, in a veiled reference to Olujimi.
But the factional Ekiti PDP chairman loyal to Olujimi said that: “It is the majority that owns the party, not Fayose. Before you can hold a valid congress, INEC must be there. INEC was not present at the ward and local government congresses conducted by Fayose.
“Fayose is free to grand stand, but the final arbiter is the court of law and it will adjudicate on this crisis and tell us which faction is authentic,” he said.