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Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has responded to threats by factional PDP chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, to make him and his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, irrelevant in the party.
Speaking after the Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt declared him authentic National Chairman of the PDP, Sheriff promised to shut out Wike and Fayose, who is currently the chairman of the PDP Governors forum.
READ: Sheriff vows to shut Fayose, Wike, out of PDP
But in a statement signed by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said: “On that comment by Sheriff that he will kick me and Gov Wike out of PDP, I don’t talk to monkeys. That Appeal Court judgement is just a phase, it will fizzle out. All things will work together for good for me, that’s what the Bible says.
“All the Governors, National Assembly members, BOT, etc are on this side. So who is he going to be leading?
“Whether he is being back by whatever forces, be it external or internal, good luck to him Let everybody in PDP calm down, there is salvation ahead of us”.
Fayose also said: “I am saying it here that we are under the leadership of the Ahmed Makarfi led Caretaker Committee.
“When we got the judgement at the lower court, affirming the Caretaker Committee, Sheriff was still parading himself as the chairman. This time around too, we have appealed the Appeal Court judgement and as such, Makarfi remains our chairman until the Supreme court decides”
The statement added: “I’m aware that some people are apprehensive of 2018 but I want to say it here that they should worry not. What I know that will happen tomorrow is that I will get to greater heights.
“There are three major important factors in elections, the people is number one, followed by the party and the candidate. You can have a party and candidate, if you don’t have the people, you will fail because the power of the people is greater than the power of those of us in power.
“Here in Ekiti, we have the people”
In a seperate statement, the Governor said that his government would on March 8, celebrate Ekiti women.
He said: “We are going to celebrate our women on March 8 and we will do that in grand style because our women are worthy of being celebrated.
“In Ekiti, we have so many women who should be exposed to the world and the Women’s Day celebration is the beginning of that in Ekiti.
“Any town in Ekiti where there are women groups with record of more than 35 members should be registered and benefits like soft loans will come to them”.