Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party and knocked the party’s national chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, for the party’s loss in the just concluded presidential election.
Fayose announced his resignation during an interview on Wednesday with ARISE TV, stating that the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, rejected the offer of one term in office to get the G5 governors’ support.
Atiku lost some of the G5 governors’ states to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Tinubu who won three of the states, while Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi won two states.
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 (it) 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. One, you are 76 as of last year. The G-5 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 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 G-5; 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 (and that) when he becomes President he will say it. Who does that?”
Fayose also blamed Ayu for the loss of the party at the polls.
He urged the party to accept defeat, alleging that it was sponsoring protests against the outcome of the election.
He added, “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?