The former governor condemned and rejected the suspension.<\/p>\n
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State worsened on Tuesday as the party announced the suspension of Ayo Fayose, a former governor in the state.<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the party, Makanjuola Ogundipe, announced the suspension in Ado-Ekiti.<\/p>\n
He said Mr. Fayose\u2019s suspension followed the roles he allegedly played in the invasion of the state secretariat by hoodlums last week.<\/p>\n
Also suspended with Mr. Fayose, he said, were the State Secretary of the party, Tope Aluko; State Women Leader, Busola Oyebode; as well as State Public Relations Officer, Kola Oluwole.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ogundipe said investigations conducted by the party indicated that the suspended persons were connected to the crisis in the party.<\/p>\n
The chairman denied allegations that he collected N5 million from an aspirant based in Abuja to help him emerge as the party\u2019s consensus candidate. He said those suspended would appear before the party\u2019s disciplinary committee at a date to be announced soon.<\/p>\n
But reacting, Mr. Fayose described his suspension from the party as \u201coutright cancellation of the entire PDP in Ekiti State.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not only laughable but ignoble; suspending Fayose is like suspending PDP in Ekiti.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the national leadership of PDP, not Ogundipe that can suspend Fayose who toiled to make the party occupy its present position as major opposition party in the state today.<\/p>\n
\u201cFayose is an institution that cannot be excised from a party like PDP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Fayose, who left the party after his impeachment during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, was brought back to the PDP by the national leadership of the party led by its chairman, Bamanga Tukur. He is believed to be eyeing the governorship ticket of the party in 2014 to challenge the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria in the state.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s ruling party is currently experiencing crisis in various states despite the efforts by its national leaders to reconcile warring factions. Several other states where the ruling party is experiencing similar crisis like Ekiti\u2019s include Ogun, Oyo, Rivers, and Adamawa.<\/p>\n
(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former governor condemned and rejected the suspension. The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State worsened on Tuesday as the party announced the suspension of Ayo Fayose,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n