EKITI State governor Ayo Fayose has been embroiled in another major political row after he led a delegation of People's Democratic Party (PDP) to the party's headquarters opposing the election of Ondo State's Olusegun Mimiko as the chairman of their governors' forum.
Last week, Governor Mimiko was elected the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum at a meeting attended by only six of the party’s 13 governors and two deputies. However, the election has sparked a major row within the party as several PDP governors feel that Governor Mimiko is too new to the party to have such an exalted position.
Governor Fayose has subsequently rallied some other governors in the party to kick against Governor Mimiko’s emergence. He has already petitioned the national leadership of the party to intervene before the matter degenerates into a full blown crisis.
One source at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja confirmed the receipt of the petition against Governor Mimiko. He added that the party’s national working committee will be meeting its governors today to iron out the matter.
According to the aggrieved governors, the choice of Governor Mimiko did not follow due process on the grounds that he only defected to the PDP last year. Elected governor as a member of the Labour Party, Governor Mimiko joined the PDP in the run-up to the last elections and was given a prominent role in President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign team.
However, some of the governors who have been members of the PDP Governors Forum since its inception, believe the position of chairman should have gone to a longer serving member. Former Akwa Ibom State governor Godswill Akpabio was the pioneer chairman of the forum but relinquished it at the expiration of his tenure on May 29.
Highly controversial, Governor Fayose was one of President Muhammadu Buhari's most outspoken critics during the election campaigns. He recently just survived an impeachment move by members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly amid heightened political tension in the state.
