Things are falling apart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, less than a year after it won the governorship election.
The party is embroiled in a crisis as a section of the State Working (SWC) Committee removed the Chairman, Idowu Faleye, accusing him of breach of party constitution.
They elected Olatunde Olatunde as the new chairman.
The SWC said Olatunde would remain acting chairman, pending the time an emergency congress would be called to elect a substantive chairman.
The action was said to have been taken without the knowledge of Faleye’s benefactor, Governor Ayo Fayose.
Addressing reporters at a briefing yesterday, Olatunde said the change of guards was not targeted at Fayose, describing the governor as a “respected party leader”.
Olatunde also claimed that the action was not a fallout of the raging feud between Fayose and the National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, who are bickering over the party’s woeful performance at the last general elections.
Faleye, who is a former state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), was appointed, following the elevation of his predecessor, Makanjuola Ogundipe, to the position of National Vice Chairman (Southwest) shortly after the June 21 governorship poll.
Addressing reporters in Ado Ekiti yesterday, Olatunde claimed that Faleye voluntarily resigned to rectify the anomaly noticed in his appointment .
He explained that having come from the same Ido Ekiti Ward 1 with the state youth leader, Faleye cannot continue to lay claim to the party’s chairmanship.
Olatunde revealed that the National Working Committee (NWC), led by Mu’azu, has been notified of the change.
According to him, the Mu’azu-led NWC was notified through the Southwest Zonal Executive led by Ogundipe, saying Faleye had ceased to be the party boss in Ekiti.
“Though, we have not breached any constitution by not confiding in the governor before taking the action because going by the constitution of our party, there is a difference between governance and the party.
“The governor holds the governance but he is a PDP member under me,” he said.
But Faleye won’t give up as he maintained that he remains the party chairman.
Faleye, who also addressed a briefing in Ado Ekiti, denied the allegations of breach of party constitution and inefficiency levelled against him.
He claimed that the grouse of his opponents was the payment of six-month arrears of their honorarium totaling N11 million.
Faleye said he told them pointedly that he could not get the money without the approval of the state party leader.
He argued that it was wrong for Olatunde and his backers to have described his appointment as illegal, insisting that the party met all constitutional provisions before he was appointed.
Faleye said: “I am the only recognised chairman and whoever that said I have been removed is only deceiving himself.
“Nobody has the right to suspend me because I am a member of the National Executive Council”.