The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Caretaker Committee Publicity Secretary and a governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, with reporters on the imperative of credible shadow poll to avoid post-primary crisis. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA was there.
We congratulate you for a successful declaration of today…
This is not a declaration yet, on the day that I will do my declaration, the whole town will be locked down and you will not be able to move for four hours. Today, we held a meeting of Prince Adedayo Adeyeye Movement (PAAM) members from the 16 local government areas because it is necessary for me to address them in the light of what happened in the state last week when somebody purportedly anointed somebody.
Fayose said it was a divine choice as revealed to him by God…
Woe unto him to whom God did not speak, but is saying that God has spoken to him; woe unto him. It is in the Bible and it carries a serious punishment by God and I hope somebody has not put himself under a serious curse because I can see a curse on the head of that person already. However, we called a meeting today to reassure our teeming members and put the record straight; we asked them to send only representatives, few members from each of the local government but many of them decided to storm this place because everybody wanted to come. But I had to personally speak with many of the leaders in these local governments to restrain a lot of people from coming. They all came on their own making sacrifices, Igbo people came, Hausa people came, Urhobos came and all these people have spoken here today, the major ethnic groups were here today. We also have all artisans, tailors, barbers, everybody PDP members, young, old, all the stalwarts were here, they all wanted to hear from me. I thought I would receive some few group of people so that we can disseminate information about my position on what the true situations of things are. That was the whole purpose of calling this meeting, it was not a formal declaration. When we are going to make a formal declaration, the whole country will hear it.
When are you planning to declare?
Why can’t you wait? Our declaration will come sooner than later in the light of this development, this is an ordinary meeting of PAAM which my supporters somehow turned to a carnival. Even as we were holding the meeting, they took it upon themselves to ask delegates from each local government to come out and dance to acknowledge me and the people came to dance even this was not the part of the agenda. We allowed them to show their enthusiasm, their interest, their love for us and we are so grateful, thankful to the people of Ekiti State. All glory to God Almighty because this is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. So, we have come to explain to our members the true situation of things because what happened last week Wednesday (September 6) was a huge joke. If somebody decides to stage the Alawada (comedy) theatre, who are we to ask him not to stage it? So, what was staged at the Government House was a pure awada theatre just to entertain the people. It was a nullity, of no consequence, it’s neither in conformity with the law, the party constitution, the Nigerian Constitution with the Electoral Law or Electoral Guidelines.
That was an irresponsible step and I say it without any fear of contradiction that it was an irresponsible step to take and I say it to the camera that it was an irresponsible step to take. Because if you are a leader, God has placed you there in the position of authority, you are supposed to be the first person to respect the law.
Not to be the first person to violate it; in as much as the whole thing was of no consequence which I know is of no consequence, we still have six months to the primaries. I am a member of the (PDP) National Caretaker Committee, this party has regulations, the primaries of the PDP will not take place until early March next year.
We are in the process of doing that of Anambra. Where in this world has what happened here last week (in Ekiti) taken place? Even if you say you have the right to do it, you must behave responsibly as a leader not to cause disaffection and division in your party. The PDP in Ekiti State, we are in a very, delicate position; we do not have the federal might behind us anymore, the Police, the Army and other security forces, we don’t have them. And three years down the line, we no longer have the popularity with which we came to office because a lot of things have happened. Some people are not happy in the town, even if you don’t know, we do an opinion poll in the state and you will discover that this government has alienated a lot of people in the society. So, we need somebody to come in there with his own record and assure people that this party is doing well and if there are mistakes, you correct them but if you believe in continuity of failure, that is stupidity. Maybe, it is an agenda to ruin the party. What I am saying is that I called my people here to assure them that there will be primaries in this party and the rules and regulations will be followed, the constitution of the party will be followed and they should just keep on organising, keep on holding their meetings, keep on spreading the gospel, keep on spreading the message. By the grace of the Almighty God, come the primaries, we are going to prevail. Let me tell you in 2014, we were coasting home to victory; everybody knew that if free and fair primaries were held in 2014, there was no way I wouldn’t have won it by 60 per cent. I would have won it by 70 per cent. Every party member here knew it and we were even stronger. A lot of people are not here, they are in government because many of them are holding government positions no matter how small. Some of them are holding party positions, they are under threat, many of them are calling me that they don’t mind leaving those positions but I am telling them to keep their positions. These positions are their entitlements, they worked hard to be where they are. The man is not doing them any favour, if you have not worked hard to be where you are, you wouldn’t have been there. So, I said keep your positions, if not, let me tell you that the people who are not here are more than the people that are here. Everybody is looking for somebody that will salvage the party but somebody wants to ruin the party further but we are not going to allow it, we are not going to allow it. You know that I am somebody who does not shy away from battles. In short, that was the whole essence of this meeting and I have explained to them to keep on working. There will be free and fair primaries and whatever that happened last week is a nullity, is of no consequence, a lawless act and very irresponsible act and they should just disregard it.
How were you able to resolve the leadership crisis, which almost consumed the party earlier this year?
Some people wanted to claim the glory for the resolution of the crisis. I thought all these things should be behind us and that was what brought the problems of Sheriff on us and it became an albatross on those who imposed Sheriff on the party. All what has been responsible for the crisis in the party like impunity, imposition and the likes almost brought the party to its knees. Don’t forget that it was an attempt to impose that led us into the crisis from which we did not wriggle out until July 12; some people rose up then to say somebody was going to be chairman and it became an albatross and then we that were telling them, counselling them that it should not happen rallied round to solve the problem. They caused the problem and we found the solution. You should have asked me a question, when there is a problem, we need to find a solution and solution is on the path of justice, law and constitionality. Do the normal things, take the path of responsible leadership that can bring cohesion and unity to the party. You don’t do anything that will divide the party because you are not in the capacity to single-handedly win election in the state, you don’t have the capacity because if you deceive yourself, we don’t deceive ourselves. You don’t have the better capacity to know that you cannot win by yourself. The only solution is for people to return to the path of constitutionality, justice and equity. You have to renounce everything you did in the past and say okay everybody we have to give everybody a level playing ground.
Fears are being expressed by party members on the safety of delegates and a possible outbreak of violence, if at all the PDP governorship primary will hold, since the governor is insisting on his deputy…
I want to assure that they have nothing to fear about our primaries. If anybody commits any act of violence, he will be arrested and be made to face the wrath of the law. You cannot violate the law or wreak any act of violence against any person, the law will take its course. Nobody can commit any act of violence against the other person because the law will protect everyone of us. I want to assure you that the primaries will be the time to put things in order. There are people who are crooked trying to find some loopholes they can exploit, we will prevent that from happening but should it happen, we will fight it out. I want to reassure our party members that they have nothing to fear, our people are charged so I don’t think our primaries will be under an atmosphere of fear. Anybody trying to perpetrate violence shall be resisted and be put in his place and it will not be in his own interest.
Would you advise aggrieved aspirants to take legal action to fight the alleged imposition?
I will not want any of the aspirants to take any legal action. If an act is a nullity and is of no consequence, just laugh it off and continue with your work. We have not done primary. Our primary are just six months away and anybody has the right to stage a theatre in his house. Anybody has a right to stage a theatre in his house or can you stop somebody from staging a theatre in is house? If they (aspirants) are aggrieved and have serious complaints, they should explore the party’s internal conflict resolution mechanism. That is what I will expect our members to do, they can write petitions to the national secretariat and they will be looked into. The idea of going to court everytime, I am not favour of it, I am not advising our aspirants to go to court for any reason. There is no need for it because this matter, we are going to resolve it.
How do you react to insinuations that you have been ungrateful to Governor Fayose for the roles he played in making you a minister and Chairman of Governing Council of the State University?
How am I ungrateful? I started by telling you that in 2014, it was very glaring and every record shows that I could have won at least 70 per cent of the ballot (at PDP primary). I was on ground and our structures were all over the place and that was why when they did their abracadabra, over 14 aspirants were in contention, it was me that they called for negotiation. The former President, former Senate President, former National Chairman of the party and we knew what we agreed upon and the position of minister was used to appease me, that is the truth. Jonathan made me minister and he made me minister based on what happened in Ekiti. In that case, if I had asked my PAAM members who were sitting on the fence not to participate in that election, you knew what would have happened.
