Fayose is a Serial Traitor - Embattled Ex PDP Chieftain Reveals More Hidden Details

 

Former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Dr. Tope Aluko, in this interview with Punch correspondents, says his life is in God’s hands. He has shed more light on his strained relationshsip with his former friend and close ally, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state.

 

Tope Aluko hit the headlines last week following a dramatic interview on Channels TV during which he accused his principal, Fayose of rigging the Ekiti gubernatorial election with support from the central government led by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

 

Read some excerpts from his recent interview:

Did you give what you are doing a thought and consider the risks?
Yes, I did but you will find out that it’s better for you to add value to your community to make people feel better and it will make you feel better too. Jesus was only 33 years only and he was known all over the world. What I’m saying in essence is that getting into this is more of purging myself (of these things), more of restitution, more of saying I’m sorry to Ekiti people and more of saying that I want Ekiti vehicle to move forward properly.

But isn’t it because of your self interest that you are coming out now as you didn’t get what you wanted?
You are talking about 20 months ago and saying that I’m reacting now. No, what about House of Representatives election? That one is about eight months ago? But what I’m saying is that it’s about moving forward and not about the past. It is about the future and I’m saying that we need to get the past corrected.

You said you have known Governor Fayose for 41 years. Can you describe the relationship you have had with him?
It was very cordial; I saw him like a big brother. He was at Orita Challenge and I was at Felele, which were close to each other in Ibadan. We were family friends; we used to call ourselves the Ekiti people in Diaspora. We were young and he was a smart brother, always adventurous, so some of us wanted to follow him.

 

We always found fun in whatever he was doing. We grew up together. During his first tenure, I was the Chairman, Government Advisory Committee, like a chief adviser. When he was about to be removed from office, I was one of those that were still with him till the last day. In fact, after he left, they came for me in the church. I was arrested and before that time, they had arrested like five others. Some spent three years, some four years. I spent six months in detention and we were not convicted at the end of the day.

What really happened between you two if you have known each other for 41 years?
One remote thing I can think of is between the two of us, known only to us. I have decided not to talk about that. But the other one is that while we were doing the Ekiti project, he was derailing gradually and he was using the Peoples Democratic Party platform to feed his returnees from Labour Party and that was not good. People started complaining to me. We were telling him, but he was not okay with it. He started seeing me like a rebel.

 

He had already betrayed Femi Bamishile (former Ekiti House of Assembly Speaker), so I was on the lookout for him. Later he betrayed me. But I still felt that Ekiti and the party were bigger than all of us and that if we could manage him, he would only spend four years and go. That any move we wanted to make with the Ekiti project could then be made. So I was willing to be patient for him to step aside but it got to a level that even the leaders and stakeholders in the PDP started complaining; they were disgruntled and disenchanted.

With the disclosure, do you believe that you could still continue in politics or have you decided to retire?
Why? I am still in politics.

People are saying it is a betrayal of trust and that if you could do this to a close friend, why should they trust you?
You still don’t understand it. I am not the one betraying him; he is the one that has betrayed us. He is the one that has betrayed so many of us. He did that to Adamu Mu’azu; Senator Iyiola Omisore; Senator Teslim Folarin; Goke Olatunji. At a stage, it was he and Folarin who were forming the South West executive council and when it was Folarin’s time to contest for governorship primaries, Fayose started backing Christopher Alao-Akala. From Akala, he moved to Seyi Makinde. He betrayed Mu’azu also.

Why were you supporting him if you knew all of these?
Because I had trust and I believed in what we had used to bind ourselves together-God. He said that if he should betray me, all the terrible things in the Bible should come on his head. He said it.

But people are saying this action of yours would hurt your chances in politics. Don’t you think so?
Why? Because I told the truth?

Is it telling the truth or being hired to tell the ‘truth’?
By who? By the people I sent out of office in this manner? Do you think they will like me? Do you think so? It is Fayose that has pushed me into a corner. He used me to fight those people and then dumped me, so what will I do than to purge myself of this, apologise to Ekiti people, sit down and allow people without evil intentions to come near me? If you are saying that because of this, you cannot relate with me, then it means you have evil intentions and want to do something illegal.

 

Source: Punch