Earlier in the week, former Governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni, declared he was leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and that he would do his best to support the incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to win the governorship election which will hold on 21st June this year.
Oni, who governed the state on the platform of the PDP between 2007 and 2010 before the Appeal Court replaced him with Fayemi, told members of the PDP in Ifaki, his Ekiti hometown that Fayemi has done enough in his first term to warrant him a second term as governor.
After he was ousted by the Appeal Court, Oni became the PDP National Vice Chairman (South-West) till problem started between him and top party chieftains including President Goodluck Jonathan. He was removed from the position last year.
Beyond his reason for supporting Fayemi, Huhuonline.com can authoritatively report that his defection is more of revenge.
Oni is battling the party on one hand just as he is getting his pound of flesh from the PDP candidate in the election, Ayo Fayose.
Sources within the PDP told Huhuonline.com on Friday that for Oni, it is pay-back time for both the party and Fayose.
According to the sources, Oni has not been happy with the PDP since he was removed as the National Vice Chairman of the party and the politicking that has followed since last year.
Again, it was learnt that before Fayose emerged as the party candidate, the party carried out a secret survey in form of a mock primaries in the state and Oni emerged as the preferred person with the overwhelming support even though he did not make up his mind to contest.
But it was learnt that Fayose later emerged among all the aspirants for the position because of the support of President Goodluck Jonathan. His emergence had torn the party apart then, some of the aspirants going to court to secure an injunction stopping the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from recognising Fayose as the party’s candidate.
Also, it was learnt that Fayose was a major part of Fayemi successful take-over from Oni in 2010. The sources said prior to 2007 when Fayemi contested against Oni as governor of the state, Fayose, who had defected to the Labour Party from the PDP under which he had governed the state, began a massive campaign for Fayemi against Oni.
“In fact, those who can recall will tell you that during that period, Fayose and his entire structure went from house to house using whatever means, including propaganda, to campaign against Oni,” one of the sources told Huhuonline.com at the PDP party secretariat in Lagos.
“Eventually, Oni won but the court ousted him in favour of Fayemi. Therefore, Oni sees this period as an opportunity to pay Fayose in his own coin.”
Huhuonline.com learnt from the sources that the PDP is desperate about taking over the south-west from the APC and as such, it is backed by the federal might in the election in Ekiti and the one in Osun later this year.
Moreover, the party chose Fayose for Ekiti and Iyoola Omisore for Osun because it wanted people who are on ground within the party and could successfully wrestle with the incumbent governors for the position.
Fayose has said he is not disturbed by Oni’s exit at this critical period and that the exit is “good riddance to bad rubbish.” He has also described Oni as a misfortune to the party adding that the party is just struggling to reclaim the state.
Fayose, who said Oni defected because the party refused his plea to be made either a minister or an ambassador, claimed that his exit is a relief to the party.
But a source in the PDP said Oni never lobbied for such positions. According to the party chieftain, Oni was only waiting to see how the problem he had with the PDP could be resolved before hand. “But our party hierarchy thought it could do without the former governor and he decided to hit back,” he said.
Oni, it is learnt, has begun a grassroots campaign for Fayemi.
During his defection rally, he had declared: “we must ask ourselves who is in a better position to give Ekiti a better future, the kind of future that we want. This is why we are doing this. If you are an Ekiti person, ask yourself who is in a better position to bequeath your children a better future.
“Tomorrow is greater than today and yesterday. Let us look at our future. I am not talking perfection. I know God is the only one who is perfect. We must not focus on personal interests. Let us think about the future of our children. Tomorrow has started today.”
