PDP laughs off Fayose over his boast that Atiku cannot win without him, considers begging Wike

In angry riposte to his exclusion from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential Campaign Council in Osun State, and other developments in the oarty, a former Governor of Ekiti state, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has boasted that it will be impossible for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar to win the 2023 election without Governor Nyesom Wike and himself.

This was as he accused the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP led by Dr Iyorcia Ayu of conspiring to embarrass him by excluding his name from the list of the Osun State Governorship Campaign Council.

He said that the PDP National chairman, Dr Ayu and his NWC should be blamed for the defeat of the Party during Ekiti Governorship election.

Fayose said that the PDP NWC must not forget that he remained a leader to virtually all those appointed into the committee, stressing that when he was a governor in 2003, nearly all members of the campaign council were still boys.

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These were contained in a statement in which he further said that he and Governor Wike had options, should the Ayu-led executive committee continue to be in bed with Atiku, who hates him with passion.

Fayose also said that his non-inclusion in the campaign Council was a joke taken too far by the NWC of the party and promised to reveal his option ‘B’ soonest.

He described members of the Osun State Governorship Campaign Council led by Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State as a “pack of ‘political charlatans,” that cannot deliver the state to the PDP.

In  the words of Fayose; “Among the listed charlatans, none of them has achieved political status like myself, since I was the only one standing in Nigeria who has won an incumbent two times. So, my non-inclusions can only spell doom for the party in Osun”.

The NWC of the PDP, had on Sunday, announced the constitution of a 128 members to serve on the Osun State Gubernatorial National Campaign Council, with Senator Duoye Diri as chairman for the July 16, 2022 Governorship Election.

National Organising Secretary of the Party, Umar Bature, who announced in a statement, said the members would be sworn in tomorrow (Wednesday) in Abuja.

Meantime, THE CONCLAVE has learnt that whereas the PDP leadership has given consideration to suggestion to work on begging Wike to remain steadfast in the party and work for the victory of Atiku as president, the same consideration would not be extended to Fayose.

This decision, as learnt, stemmed from the facts that whereas Wike’s Rivers State has a huge vote haul of 3.7 million, Ekiti has registered voters of a little over 900,000 with about 750,000 collected permanent voter cards going by the just concluded governorship poll.

The othe fact is that whereas Wike controls Rivers State as an incumbent and leader of the PDP, Fayose does not control Ekiti.

The last election demystified him with Segun Oni coming second on the platform of Social Democratic Party, a party he defected to about four months to the June 18 governorship poll, after he was rigged out by Fayose in the PDP primary poll.

With that outcome, Oni had shown that he is more popular than Fayose in Ekiti and in the “factional PDP” which the SDP typifies.

THE CONCLAVE learnt that the leadership of the PDP had reached out to Oni after the Ekiti poll to apologise to him for their genuine mistake of thinking that Fayose was more on ground than him.

It has yet to be confirmed whether the PDP will further discussions with Oni for collaboration or alliance moving towards the 2023 Presidential poll.

Oni may as well have become a beautiful bride in the politics of Ekiti ahead of next year’s general poll as the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, who wants to garner as many votes as possible in his Southwest base may reach out to Oni for significant support through alliance.