Seyi Makinde is a dirty politician, says Fayose

Ekiti State former governor Ayodele Fayose said his political party colleague Seyi Makinde, Oyo State governor, is a dirty person as against his “quiet look”

“Governor Makinde looks quiet but dirty. Parading these people to wait for me; they are over a thousand. They are doing this to me in the video, ‘we will cut your neck,’ Fayose alleged when he featured on Politics Today, a Channels Television Programme, on Wednesday.

Fayose was reacting to a video shown to him during the interview.

The footage showed how some men threatening to kill the former governor if he comes to the venue of the People’s Democratic Party congress held to determine its leaders in the South-West zone.

Both Fayose and Makinde have been at loggerheads over who controls the party in the region.

Fayose claimed that those threatening to kill him in the video were thugs from the road transport workers union in Oyo, adding that the video depicts the kind of characters behind the Oyo governor.

“I have seen this video; what this gentleman was saying at the time they came to the venue. They said ‘Fayose, we are waiting for you here; we are going to kill you.’ This is the chairman of road transport workers in Oyo state,” he said.

“These people came with governor Makinde’s convoy. Everybody knows. Who is this man? Is he the road transport worker in Ekiti? This is enough to show the whole world. If governor Makinde, a first-term two years old governor — yet-to-be two years old governor — is parading characters like this, it simply shows the kind of people behind him.

“This is shameful for our party. I take responsibility for that. In the 21st century, thuggery is shameful for our party. Remember I was in Ondo; these people came to Ondo to attack me. These same people came to Ondo and I told governor Makinde. So I’m glad the whole world is seeing this.”

Fayose also condemned the election as a “scam,” adding that the election was rigged in favour of Taofeeq Arapaja, a former deputy governor of Oyo state, backed by Makinde.

Arapaja won the PDP south-west chairmanship seat with 343 votes to defeat Eddy Olafeso, the immediate past national vice-chairman (south-west) — and a candidate of Fayose — who polled 330 votes.

Fayose, however, said that he has accepted the outcome of the election and embraced Makinde, not because he was defeated but for the advancement of the party.

“For me, as to that election, it was a scam but I must agree as a leader of the PDP. I have been working for this party. I am one of the voices that cannot be forgotten in the PDP,” he said.

“And I will not sit down here and say because of 13 votes, because of manipulation, the party must not move forward,” he said.