· Party: Governor didn’t do anything
A political group, South West Agenda 2023 (SWAGA), has pointed fingers at Ekiti Governor Kayode Fayemi for sack of All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Ado ward 8, Mr Clement Afolabi.
Afolabi was removed by APC leaders in Ado Local Government Area of Ekiti State over his alleged fraternity with SWAGA and acceptance to coordinate the group’s activities in the council.
In a statement by SWAGA National chairman, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, the group, which described the action as alien to the APC Constitution, said the removal was ‘hand of Esau and voice of Jacob’.
Adeyeye alleged the APC executives in Ado Council acted dogmatically on a script by Governor Fayemi to edge him out of the party hierarchy on trumped up allegations of anti-party activities.
But the APC Director of Media and SSA to the Governor on party matters, Elder Sam Oluwalana, exonerated Governor Fayemi of any blame.
The SWAGA coordinator lampooned the party leaders for sacking Afolabi when the ward executives had absolved him of the trumped up anti-party allegation and passed a vote of confidence on him.
Senator Adeyeye described the political happenings in Ekiti under the watch of Dr Fayemi as “a theater of the absurd by an evil intending vicious leader with mission to smash the eggs, kill the hen and put the entire poultry on fire.
“We think it is high time we began to get weary of some strange voices within. While we condemn the recent incisive and damaging statement of the Ekiti governor on our party, we consider the save face measure shoddily adopted in visiting undue punitive measure on Afolabi, who, purportedly, was showing support for the presidential choice of a top notch of the APC, a serious aberration.
“SWAGA is aware of the underground plots to frustrate the rising political profile of Asiwaju Tinubu in the south west and indeed Nigeria, as the undisputable choice to bring stability into our fragile democracy and lift the nation economically.
“We have tested the waters to see how a people so traumatised and choked in a party, are frantically wrestling to pull out of the terrible grip of the political Dracula of our time for a resting haven they have found in SWAGA.
“The ongoing attempt to plunder and decimate our party and then leave the carcass for us to contend with, is not hidden. This we shall resist for the efforts of the builders of this democracy and many other Nigerians, who have toiled in endurance and are waiting to reap the gains.
“While we condemn the lingering undemocratic approach of Fayemi to issues in recent times and insist on a call to order, we enjoin our party men and women across country, to feel free to identify with SWAGA.
“SWAGA is APC and APC is SWAGA. There is no way a member can commit anti-party offence for favouring the presidential choice of a party man,” he said.
In a swift reaction, Oluwalana said the suspension slammed on Afolabi was undertaken at the ward level, which he said was vested with the power to try any erring members.
“This was purely an internal crisis at the ward level. They were not supposed to bring Governor Fayemi into it because it was a ward level matter.
“He has done nothing to warrant the attack. He has not done anything to show he was trying to decimate the party or anti-party as being alleged.
“It was wrong and demeaning for Senators Dayo Adeyeye and Babafemi Ojudu, who are respectable members of our party to think that Governor Fayemi will descend so low to remove a ward chairman or do anything that will decimate our party.
“A member of House of Representatives, Hon Sola Fatoba, who is from Ado Ekiti and even our party at the state level have started wading into the matter and we expected the duo of Senators Adeyeye and Ojudu to toe the same path. They shouldn’t be stoking the crisis.
“For the sake of emphasis, Mr Governor didn’t know anything about the sack and nobody should vent his anger on him. It was strictly a ward affair and it should be seen as such,” he said.
THE NATION
