The Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has said the internal crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress in the state is not unconnected with how some chieftains in the APC cornered the N4.1 billion state funds diverted to the party by former Governor Kayode Fayemi.
The party also said it has incontrovertible facts and evidence of how the money was siphoned from the treasury of the state to the party when it held sway in the state.
The PDP, which spoke through the state Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, said some members of the APC, who defected to the PDP, among other people, also provided graphic details of how the money was diverted and cornered by some leaders to the detriment of others.
The PDP: “When we raised the alarm about the gigantic fraud perpetrated during the previous administration, we knew what we were talking about. Discerning minds can also see the flimsy and jejune reaction given by the APC.
“The APC has no defence at all. The diverted funds led to the polarisation of the party into various groups. This happened because only few of their leaders who were close to those in authority then benefited.
“Anybody who the then governor or his aide marked as ‘enemy’ he made sure they did not benefit from the money or even partake in the disbursement, this was the genesis of many groups springing up within the opposition party less than a year it left government.”
According to PDP spokesman, there were five groups that had sprung up in the APC with divided loyalty to their party because of what they considered the greed of the Fayemi group.
Adebayo said: “We are bold to say that it was this money, N4.1billion, that we are talking about that has been the bane of peace and unity in the Ekiti APC today. Ojudu’s Action Group sees Fayemi’s group as self-serving and symbol of greed, while the other groups detest the Ojudu faction. They also accuse the group swindling the party of the money meant for the presidential and other subsequent elections which the APC lost woefully.”
Adebayo maintained that the opposition party could not defend the allegation because its leadership really soiled their hands in the monumental fraud.
He advised the APC to desist from the stupid propaganda that would not even appeal to an infant not to talk of the ever conscious Ekiti State people who were eyewitnesses to the extravagant spending on unproductive and even non-existing projects and programmes during APC’s four-year sojourn in Ekiti State Government House.