Quote:Olusola Fabiyi , Abuja


The Peoples Democratic Party has set up a reconciliation committee headed by a former President of the Senate , David Mark, to settle the rifts among its members in Ekiti State.

Mark, it was learnt, would be assisted by the Deputy Vice Chairman of the party in the South - West , Dr . Eddy Olafeso , and others whose identities were not known as of the time of filing this report .

The National Publicity Secretary of the party , Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, confirmed the setting up of the committee in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Monday .

He said , “ Yes , it is true we have set up a committee headed by Senator David Mark on Ekiti State . The committee is credible and its members were carefully chosen with a mandate to settle the rift.

“ The state is important to us and we don’ t want to play with it because after winning there , we will then move to Osun State to liberate them . ”

The crisis in Ekiti deepened when Governor Ayodele Fayose allegedly picked his deputy , Prof. Kolapo Olusola, singlehandedly as his successor and the candidate of the party in the coming governorship election .

Aggrieved leaders of the party led by a former National Publicity Secretary of the party , Prince Dayo Adeyeye , vowed that the adoption would not stand and called on the national leadership of the party to intervene to avoid its defeat in the election .

Apart from Adeyeye , other prominent aggrieved party members are the Senator representing Ekiti- South in the Senate , Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi and Nigeria’ s former Ambassador to Canada, Mr. Dare Bejide .

The trio , who have indicated interest in running for the office of the governor on the platform of the party in the July 14 election alongside a former aide and Commissioner for Justice to Fayose , Mr. Owoseeni Ajayi , jointly issued a statement describing the governor’ s action as “ pedestrian and undemocratic . ”

But when our correspondent contacted Adeyeye on the peace initiative , he said he had yet to be informed about the committee.

“Well , I have not been contacted ; but if contacted , I will take part. We are all desirous of winning the election and I can also tell you that I will win the primary . ”