Leadership of the national caretaker committee of the All progressives Congress (APC), has been called upon to ensure that all anti-democratic manipulations that could lead to impositions in the coming party congresses are guided against so that the body can bequeath a foolproof election, devoid of rancour.
A former lawmaker, who represented Ekiti West/Ijero/Efon-Alaaye Federal Constituency II, Hon. Oyetunde Ojo, in response to the undercurrent of some sharp practices currently going on in the Ekiti State Chapter of the party, ahead of the congresses.
Ojo alleged that the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has began the process of compiling names of his preferred candidates from ward to state levels in an attempt to impose and frustrate the congresses.
According to the former lawmaker, the state government has also directed that all ward meetings and such other party gatherings be stopped forthwith to block all dissents from raising objections, so he could coast home with the names of his loyalists for the congresses.
The APC chieftain, who viewed Governor Fayemi’s action as undemocratic and a wrong step to the direction of what took the party into the deep ocean of litigations that later birthed the current caretaker regime in the APC, warned that “urgent attention should be paid by party leadership to the journey to Sodom, going on in Ekiti, call on the leading Pharaoh of our state to redirect steps from the avoidable Red Sea ahead, so the party can sail with ease to victory.
“We are aware that the Governor Fayemi led administration has sent a directive to all wards to compile lists of party representatives from Wards to local government level and these have been forwarded to him for imposition in the coming congresses. This is an aberration to the norms of all democratic practices which we all fought at a time in our party, and which led to the dissolution of former party officials and the enthronement of the current caretaker committees which role is to correct the past anomalies and lend a potent tooth to the coming one through fair, equitable and participatory contests.
“The current development in Ekiti State where the governor is compiling lists of only the people he is disposed to and muzzling opposition by stopping all ward meetings and other such gathering, is simply dictatorial and will not be tolerated.
“We are calling on the National Caretaker Committee of our party, the leaders of the APC, to be alive to this subterranean move and act accordingly as the people have resolved not to allow any such imposition in our party again.
“Never again shall we fold our arms and watch our rights being taken by fiat by a governor whose loyalty to the APC is in doubt. Never shall we allow a governor who once robbed us of our hard-earned victory in 2014, force us into another political Siberia.
“This is why a quick step is required to arrest the ongoing attempt to sweep the rights of the majority of our party members in Ekiti State under carpet. We are sure the nocturnal action will eventually blow open and curtailed as the people will keep demanding for their rights to equity and fair play, until justice is entrenched through people’s-oriented leadership from our wards, up to the state level,” Ojo said.
