•Such news should be ignored –Former Gov
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State deepened further yesterday when the state Chairman, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, announced the suspension of former governor of the state Mr. Ayodele Fayose from the party.
Fayose, a governorship aspirant in the 2014 governorship election in the state, was suspended along with three other officials indefinitely.
Makanjuola, flanked by the Deputy Chairman, Hon. Femi Bamisile, said the three State Working Committee (SWC) members – Dr Tope Aluko (Secretary); Pastor Kola Oluwawole (Public Relations Officers) and Mrs. Busola Oyebode (Women Leader) and the former governor were suspended for anti-party activities and insubordination.
The chairman told journalists in Ado Ekiti that they stand suspended pending the outcome of the findings of a disciplinary committee that would look into the allegations leveled against them.
He said the SWC, after thorough investigation of the crisis rocking the party, particularly the attack on the party secretariat last week, met and resolved that the action needed to be taken.
Ogundipe said: "PDP as a disciplined party would not tolerate any act of insubordination and indiscipline as well as acts capable of rubbishing the transformational agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan."
Reacting yesterday, Fayose described his purported suspension as "news to be ignored," saying the PDP chairman did not have such powers to suspend him.
The former governor, who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said he could only be suspended at the PDP ward level and not by the party chairman. He said: "Suspending Fayose is like suspending the PDP in Ekiti State. He should learn from the past."
This was as the suspended Publicity Secretary of the party, Pastor Oluwawole, said the suspension was an aberration. He said Ogundipe had earlier been suspended and would have to face a disciplinary action to clear himself of the allegations against him.
It will be recalled that the three suspended SWC members had last week announced the suspension of the state party chairman following the constitution by the chairman of an 11-man Consensus Committee for the selection of the party's candidate for the 2014 governorship election.
They had accused the party chairman, among others, of unilaterally turning the agreed Consensus Template Drafting Committee on to a Consensus Screening Committee. Fayose had rejected consensus and called on the party to select its governorship candidate through a credible primary.
But Ogundipe, who said the consensus option remained the only democratic way to move the party forward in the state, said that the Justice Edward Ojuolape- led consensus committee that he set up was saddled with the responsibility of "giving us the template for the consensus arrangement. To give us how we are going to go about it."
He said: "We are going to put every candidate on scale. We are not looking for just a candidate, but somebody capable of occupying the Oke Bareke Governor's Office."
National Mirror