Ekiti 2018: Former PDP Spokesperson, Adeyeye Joins APC

A former minister of works, who contested the Ekiti governorship ticket on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dayo Adeyeye, has joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Adeyeye was the spokesman of the PDP under the interim leadership of Ahmed Makarfi.

He sought to be the candidate of the PDP in the July election, but was defeated by Kolapo Olusola, the incumbent deputy governor of the state.

This is a repeat of his experience at the Action Congress of Nigeria in 2006 when he lost the governorship ticket to Kayode Fayemi, leading to his defection to the PDP. Mr Fayemi, an ex-governor of the state, recently won the APC governorship ticket.

Speaking with journalists in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, Mr Adeyeye said he took the decision because he could no longer tolerate the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose’s “despotic tendencies in PDP”.

He said leaving the PDP would afford him the opportunity to help in ridding the state of “pervasive poverty and corruption which is endemic in the state.”

He also explained he left his party after meeting with the leaders of Adedayo Adeyeye Movement (PAAM) across the 16 local governments.

Mr Adeyeye said he would join Mr Fayemi “to rescue Ekiti from the pangs of misrule under Fayose and nothing would stop him from actualising the dream”.

“My supporters, associates, PAAM and I have finally resolved to join APC with effect from today 29th May in the celebration of democracy day that some of us fought gallantly to achieve from the military,” said Mr Adeyeye.

“Expectedly patriotic leaders of the party appealed to me to reconsider my decision in the light of my previous services and loyalty to the party. But the issue was never about me as a person.

“It was about the interest of the very many people who associate with me and more importantly the collective interest and future of Ekiti people. For me, politics has always been an opportunity to serve and make contribution towards the development of my community and the nation.

“Therefore where I am compelled to make a choice between loyalty to a political party and loyalty to my community, l will readily chose my community or state. Political parties come and go but the community remains. I cannot change my state or hometown but I can always change my party if I feel that it can no longer serve as a vehicle for our collective good as a people.

“As a thorough bred Ekiti person with a deep love of this land and the people it is incumbent on me to resist and stop the evil agenda of one man to put our people in perpetual enslavement. I have said no to Fayose’s continuity of dictatorship, impunity, imposition, poverty, unprecedented looting of our common patrimony and deliberate debasement of the self esteem of our people.

“For my friends, admirers, patrons and well wishers I want to reiterate that Fayose is an impossible person to deal with. A pompous martinet with a huge ego, he is deliberately divisive and deceitful. He does not believe in reconciliation and no effort at reconciliation will work with him.

“Therefore after deep introspection and wide consultation with various stakeholders in this State, my supporters and I have decided to leave Egypt which the Fayose administration represents and join hands with patriotic Ekiti people to board the train of the APC for the onward journey to our promised land,” he said.

Several efforts were made by the leadership of the PDP in Abuja to reconcile Mr Adeyeye and Mr Fayose just before the primaries.

Although the primary election was reportedly peaceful and transparent, Mr Adeyeye’s grouse was that the governor’s thinly veiled support for his deputy “railroaded the delegates and the party machinery in the state to support his candidate well before the election”.