- You can’t be governor, Fayose warns
- Nobody can block my quest to serve the people, Olujimi replies
The last has not been heard of the riveting dispute between forces loyal to the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, and senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi.
In the heat of the crisis, Olujimi posted a stinker on facebook, alleging that Fayose wanted to kill her, having persuaded her to no avail not to run for next year’s governorship election.
In the missive, Olujimi described Fayose as a dictator. He said the governor was determined to impose a stooge on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party as governorship candidate, a move which she said she and other contestants would resist.
But Olujimi would later deny knowledge of the posting, saying it was fabricated and planted probably by those who were sympathetic with her cause. But the federal lawmaker admitted that the governor was not in support of her governorship ambition. She stressed, however, that the contest is her inalienable right. “Nobody can stop my quest to serve the people,” she once told our correspondent.
It was learnt that at a recent stakeholders’ meeting of the state’s PDP, Fayose had reportedly said, “Olujimi can’t be governor, not here.”
But deliberately, Olujimi has chosen to keep mum while working quietly at the grassroots. Same thing with former Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who said Fayose could not deter him from wishing to serve the people of the state.
Already, however, Fayose has adopted the state’s deputy governor, Prof. Olusola Eleka, as his preferred candidate for the governor of Ekiti.
Olujimi, incidentally, had been Fayose’s long-standing ally. In the first tenure of the governor, he made Olujimi a Special Assistant, after which he helped her ambition to become a member of the House of Representatives.
Then, Fayose had quarrelled with his deputy, Abiodun Aluko, whom he booted out through a House of Assembly impeachment, after which he made Olujimi his deputy.
When Fayose also became governor, he worked to ensure success for Olujimi as senator.
Sign that the two politicians have fallen apart was demonstrated recently when the state’s House of Assembly grilled two of their members over an allegation that they were ‘caught in support’ for Olujimi.
The two lawmakers, Mr. Michael Adedeji, representing Ekiti SouthWest Constituency II, and Mr. Adeojo Fajana, representing Ekiti East Constituency 1, were investigated by a disciplinary committee and found to be allegedly loyal to Olujimi.
The Assembly, at a press conference in Ado Ekiti, described as “sacrilege”, Senator Olujimi’s alleged claim on the social media that 11 members of the assembly were loyal to her, saying the House was an institution that was too big and independent to be in her pocket.
Briefing newsmen on the matter, the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon. Samuel Omotoso, said “erring lawmaker,” Adedeji, had been pardoned by the assembly, having written an apology letter to the Speaker, Hon. Kola Oluwawole, and for showing remorse for his action.
But Omotoso said that the other “erring lawmaker”, Fajana, had yet to appear before the panel and promised that his matter would be treated with utmost fairness, anytime he
appeared.
Claiming that the action taken against the lawmakers were mere corrective measures to protect the Assembly, Omotoso said there was nothing personal over the assembly’s action.
“After investigation, it was discovered that truly, these honourable members had unholy alliances with Senator Olujimi. The alliance is not even the issue, but what it has brought to the people and the Assembly as an institution.
“We found out that the alliance with the Senator had made these lawmakers to consistently exhibit wrong signs and acted disrespectfully to the office of the speaker, thus bringing his (Speaker’s) office and integrity of the House to disrepute.
“We have seen in the social media how Senator Olujimi claimed that she was in control of this house; this is not so. The PDP organogram in Ekiti is very clear. Governor Fayose is our leader; no other leader, anywhere,” he said.
Omotoso added that the Assembly, as a product of the law, had standing orders with which it regulated itself, and maintained discipline among the lawmakers, saying the house would not overlook any member’s misconduct capable of plunging the Assembly into crisis.
“We are not bothered about Senator Olujimi because these actions are not personal but directed at maintaining decent and honourable conducts among our members,”
he stressed.
