Former Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has challenged his former deputy, Prof Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, to search his soul for what went wrong in their political relationship rather than coming to public to disparage him.
Fayose, who took exception to Olusola-Eleka’s choice of words that described him as ‘deceitful and arrogant,’ stated, “As a professor of repute, I feel you should not forget history that soon by allowing yourself to be taken over by emotions such that you will speak ill of a man you once called your greatest political leader.”
Olusola-Eleka, had last week, in a letter indicating his withdrawal from the contest for the Peoples Democratic Party ticket for Ekiti South Senatorial District, said, “Fayose, who openly endorsed my candidacy for Senate in my town, discreetly aided another person from the same constituency to pick the same senatorial form. That left me with no choice but to consider his endorsement as a facade and decoy.
“Having consulted widely on the foregoing with my teeming supporters across the 16 local government areas, I have decided not to dwell where there is no sincerity of purpose, but an arrogant display of deception and hence, pull out from the contest.”
But Fayose, in a letter to Olusola-Eleka, titled, “Re: Notification of withdrawal from senatorial contest; I wasn’t deceitful and arrogant in 2014 and 2018 when I chose you as deputy, guber candidate”, considered the former deputy governor’s remark as price for leadership on his (Fayose’s) part with all necessary lessons learnt.
The former governor said the public which Olusola-Eleka had attempted “to get their sympathy against me cannot be fooled. They certainly have a sense of history. Eleka, as I always call you, I think it is time you do a soul searching and ask yourself what went wrong.
“Have you forgotten that you were in the classroom when I brought you to be my deputy in 2014 without being part of my emergence as a PDP candidate? This is aside the fact that you were unknown to anyone in the party then. Then, I was not deceitful and arrogant, but the best if I may quote you rightly.
“Recall it was a condition precedent that we will leave office together in 2018. Rather than leaving with you, I endorsed you as PDP governorship candidate and by the grace of God, you emerged the candidate against all odds and interests. I became the enemy of those who were opposed to your emergence as a candidate without being tagged as deceitful and arrogant.
“I also worked tirelessly for your election as governor, and you know that you are not the governor of Ekiti State today, not because we lost the election. Then, I was to you, the greatest among leaders.
“Unfortunately in 2022, for reasons best known to you, you missed the privilege of being endorsed as I did in 2018; part of what earned me your new title of deceitful and arrogant. I have become a man you openly disparage, forgetting that every day is not Christmas.”
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