Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Niger State, Tanko Beji, has said that Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, should not take his candidate’s loss at the party presidential primaries to heart, noting that the candidate, Aminu Tambuwal, has congratulated the winner.
Ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar won the coveted party presidential candidacy at the fiercely-contested party primary which held over the weekend.
Fayose and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had rooted for the Sokoto State Governor, Tambuwal, who came second in the primaries. Beji said Fayose has no reason to leave the party over the outcome.
Fayose had threatened to leave the PDP following the failure of his preferred aspirant and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to pick the party’s presidential ticket.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Tambuwal lost the ticket to former Vice President Abubakar Atiku who got 1,532 votes, to dwarf his 693 votes at the National Convention held on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Irked by the outcome, Fayose, in a statement on Monday in Ado Ekiti, threatened to leave the PDP and defect to another political fold.
But Beji, who spoke with newsmen on Tuesday in Minna, said that Fayose, a vocal founding member of the PDP, has no reason to dump the party.
“Fayose is the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum; he cannot abandon the position and leave the party in the middle of the sea,” he said.
Beji wondered why Fayose should keep the loss of the ticket to heart when Tambuwal had already congratulated the winner.
“Fayose cannot cry more than the bereaved. I will advise him not to take a step he could regret later. Fayose is a bold democrat we all respect in PDP. Majority of PDP members have accepted Atiku. Fayose cannot say ‘No.’
“What I expect Fayose to do is to join the majority. He has the right to be angry, but this is democracy and the majority has spoken,” he said.
The chairman also dismissed claims that some of the PDP candidates for next year’s general election were sponsored by the opposition. “We do not have moles among our candidates. That I can assure you,” he said.
The chairman said that the PDP primaries were successful at all levels, declaring that the party was “set to confront and defeat every rival in the 2019 general elections”.