A former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Fayose, a two-term former governor under the platform of the PDP, made the declaration while speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday.
The former governor also disclosed that the PDP presidential candidate in the just concluded presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, rejected the offer of one term in office to get the support of the party’s aggrieved governors, known as G5.
Fayose said: “From today, I stay off PDP. Let me put it this way, in party politics. Because there are certain facts.
“I am 62. I say it here from today, I step aside because I must be talking like a leader in this country.
“I had issued on my Twitter handle even in the month of January or December. I warned the PDP about this problem; if not resolved will consume this party. I told them there is danger ahead. Watch it.
“I was invited by His Excellency Atiku Abubakar to a hotel in Lagos. I told him four things, that there were four demands they made of you.
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“One, you are 76 as of last year. The G5 said, you are already a candidate, you can’t abort a child that has been given birth to.
“But let us go back and tell the Southerners that you will spend four years so that it would not look like it will be eight to eight years back to back for the North because Buhari is leaving and he is representing the North irrespective of the party.
“They told his excellency to make his official announcement, not that he should hand it over to any member of the G5. That you are going to spend four years and at that time you will be 80 years. All the people surrounding him disagree that they can’t say such, when he becomes President he will say it, who does that?” the former governor disclosed.
He equally accused the PDP National Chairman, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, of the failure of the party at the presidential poll.
Fayose, who enjoined the PDP to accept defeat, said: “This Ayu was the one who led Atiku to the gutters. They took him to the gutters.
“You see when a man cannot come out. At 80 what does he want to do after?”
The former governor had earlier congratulated the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, for winning the February 25, 2023, presidential election.
Fayose, in a series of tweets on his verified Twitter account on Wednesday, also called for Ayu’s resignation.
“I congratulate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on his election as the next President of Nigeria. As the presidential election comes to an end, I urge other contestants, especially Atiku Abubakar to accept the outcome in the overall interest of our country. There will always be another day,” he tweeted.
On his call for Ayu’s resignation, he stated: “As for the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, I call for his immediate resignation for his inability to move the party forward.”
Fayose is an ally of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who has since been leading calls for Ayu’s resignation after Atiku clinched the PDP’s presidential ticket in May 2022
Wike, the leader of G5, insisted that it was unfair for the main opposition party to have the national chairman and presidential candidate from the northern region of the country.
Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku came second with 6,984,520 votes in the just concluded poll.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, came third with 6,101,533 votes.
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