The crisis in the Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has remained unresolved despite the constitution and inauguration of a reconciliation committee headed by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State.
The el-Rufai-led peace panel was inaugurated on September 28, 2020, to resolve the feud between the state governor, Kayode Fayemi and the Political Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, alongside 11 other aggrieved party stalwarts.
Sources in the party told Daily Trust that one month after its inauguration, the el-Rufai committee has achieved no significant milestone in its assigned task.
The Ekiti State chapter of the party was torn into two factions following the emergence of Fayemi as the party’s candidate in the buildup to the 2018 governorship election in the state, and the division is getting more pronounced by the day.
Recently, the Fayemi camp, which the national leadership of the party has affirmed as authentic, suspended Ojudu and 11 others over alleged anti-party activities.
But a few days after, the Ojudu-led faction also announced the suspension of the governor over alleged anti-party activities.
The development led to the setting up of the Nasir el-Rufai-led reconciliation committee to return peace to the state chapter.
But the state publicity secretary of the APC, Hon. Ade Ajayi, confirmed to Daily Trust that the el-Rufai committee had not visited the state, saying they were still expecting the peace panel.
Similarly, an aggrieved member from the Ojudu-led faction, Mr. Femi Adeleye, told Daily Trust that they were yet to receive any official communication from the el-Rufai committee.
He, however, advised the APC top echelon to effect genuine reconciliation to address what he described as injustice in the party.
He warned that the chances of the party winning the 2022 governorship election in the state would be slim if the current crisis was not properly resolved.
“Our fight is about the party in the state to be able to win further elections and not the type of scenario that happened to the party in the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti,” he said.
But a stalwart of the party and political analyst, Chief Jackson Lekan Ojo, told Daily Trust in a telephone chat yesterday, that the committee would not make any headway.
He described the el-Rufai reconciliation committee as a waste of time, effort and resources.
“The el-Rufai’s committee will not make any impact at all. It will further disintegrate and polarise the party because El-Rufai and Kayode Fayemi are the political enemies of Bola Tinubu and his followers.
“Ojudu is one of those loyal to Bola Tinubu. So the battle against Ojudu and others in Ekiti State is an indirect fight against Bola Tinubu and his 2023 ambition.
“Ojudu and others know that the battle is not just a battle of today. It is a battle of 2023. Ojudu will want to take over from Fayemi to build structures for Bola Tinubu, but Fayemi would not want to ever give it to anybody that would have sympathy for Tinubu.
“So to me, el-Rufai’s committee is a waste of time, effort and money,” he said.
The APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, told Daily Trust in a telephone chat, yesterday, that the el-Rufai committee was yet to brief or submit its report to the national leadership of the party.
“The committee has not reported back to the party yet. They are supposed to come back with a written report. But the party is yet to receive any official report from the committee,” he said.
Other members of the six-member team are the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative, Idris Wase; former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha; Jaafaru Isa; former Lagos military governor, Buba Marwa, and Ini Morga, who is the committee’s secretary.
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