Aluko, Ex-Ekiti Deputy Governor Dumps PDP, Alerts On Killer Squad
Amid reconciliation of the aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , the former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Abiodun Aluko, on Wednesday announced the withdrawal of his membership from the party, saying killers squad were after some prominent Ekiti citizens.
Aluko, who was a PDP governorship aspirant, premised his dumping of the party on the allegation that Governor Ayo Fayose has turned the party to his personal estate and harassing prominent leaders.
In a letter withdrawing his membership of the PDP’ he said Fayose’s alleged vindictive and hostile attitude as well as “illegal and unconstitutional age barrier” that anybody above the age of 60 cannot contest for any position including the governorship.
The letter was addressed and submitted to the PDP Ward Chairman for Are/Araromi/Ayetoro in his native Ikere-Ekiti, Mr. Sulaiman Adeniyi who wished the ex-deputy governor in his future endeavours.
The ex-deputy governor who said he would soon reveal the party where he hope to realize his governorship ambition after concluding consultations with his supporters claimed that Fayose has been intimidating other aspirants like Senate Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Abiodun Olujimi and the party’s national spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye to drop their ambition for the 2018 gubernatorial poll.
Aluko who served under Fayose as deputy governor during his first tenure but he (Aluko) was impeached from office in controversial circumstances in November 2005 was a chieftain of the Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction before the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
Confirming his resignation in a telephone chat on Wednesday, Aluko said “the PDP of today was not the same he joined others to found in 1998” adding that “in the PDP of today, anybody who finds himself at the top sees himself as the embodiment of the party.”
The politician expressed sadness that the national leadership of the PDP are “helpless” because they depend on the governors for funding a situation which makes the governors bigger than the party that brought them to power.
Aluko accused Fayose of rewriting the constitution by ‘decreeing’ that governorship aspirants in the party must be between the ages of 50 and 59, local government chairmanship candidates between 4- and 49 and councillorship candidates between 18 and 40.
He said the new guidelines set by Fayose negate the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the PDP constitution which has shut him out of the race for the governorship in the umbrella party.
Aluko said Fayose has failed to embark on any meaningful reconciliation but has been hounding out party members who were in the Sheriff faction adding that it is anybody that the governor wants that holds key party and government positions.
Aluko said further: “I have been having a running battle with Fayose for about one-and-half years now and he said those who disagree with him on principle should come back and prostrate to him before they can be granted amnesty. Am I a criminal or a militant needing an amnesty?
“Fayose has said it loud and clear that there is no room for reconciliation in Ekiti that he would only work with those who are with him while those who are not with him should go to hell and with his new regulation on the ages of aspirants, I have been shut out.
“All leaders in the party are so scared that a killer squad could be sent after them; recently, Senator Biodun Olujimi complained that some unknown people are trailing her around because the governor challenged her to drop her governorship ambition and she resisted.
“The same thing is happening to Dayo Adeyeye whose governorship ambition is opposed to by the governor and the situation in PDP today is too bad that when the governor is the accuser, the complainant and the judge, who do you complain to?
