Ekiti 2018: PDP senator says defection may cost party win

The Senate’s Deputy Minority Whip, Biodun Olujimi, has expressed concerns over the continued exit of prominent members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Ekiti State to other parties, saying it may affect the performance of the party at the July 14 polls.

Ms. Olujimi, a governorship aspirant of the PDP, warned that the attitude of the leadership of the party towards the internal crisis rocking the state branch of the party was forcing some aspirants out of the party.

“Our leadership should take the blame for standing with their hands akimbo, this is not good. They waited for so long and allow these crisis to fester, but now they will wake up having known that there are problems,” she said.

Some aspirants such as two former deputy governors, Sikiru Lawal and Bisi Omoyeni, as well as a former Nigerian envoy to Canada, Dare Bejide, recently left the party for the Social Democratic Party(SDP).

The senator, who is representing Ekiti South, said in Ado Ekiti on Thursday that she would remain in the party, in spite of her misgivings.

She also promised to reach out to the defectors so as to woo them back to the party.

“It is worrisome that we are losing our prominent members. Former Deputy governors Lawal and Omoyeni are major stakeholders in our party,” she said.

“They worked hard in the last election of 2014 for the enthronement of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s government.

“But I am a fighter; I will fight on until the right things are done in the PDP. Though, the Senator David Mark-led reconciliation committee set up to look into Ekiti issue had given us its words that the primary will be free and fair. The leadership itself didn’t want their names soiled over Ekiti issue.

“Our national leaders promised to be up and doing; they should not expect that five aspirants to be fighting for a ticket and you will tie the hands of four of them backwards and leave one untied and expect us to fight on, this is injustice and it is against the spirit of our party’s constitution.

“All the governorship aspirants in the party are working together to ensure that we rescue our party. To allay the fears that no one can rig the primary, the statutory delegates’ list have been given to us from Abuja, it is available because it is our property.

“PDP leaders won’t want to go through pains and throes of litigations like they witnessed in the past, so let them come back and I want to allay their fears that the primary will be free, fair and credible.”

The senator assured that all the crisis in the party would be resolved amicably for the PDP to approach the election as a united family.