Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said that he would oppose national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, if he tries to run for president in 2019.
Fayose said this while reacting to a newspaper report that he was warming up to be Sheriff’s running mate in 2019.
He described the report as cheap blackmail.
The governor, who declared that he remained the most senior serving governor in the country, said he was a man of principle, maintaining that nobody should bother to arrange such position for him if they were doing so now, as he was not interested in it.
He said he had more than two years to go as Ekiti governor and was fully concentrating on that job.
Nigerian Tribune quoted him as saying:
“It is like a man still chewing something and still looking for something inside somewhere to chew again. I am not a character like that.
“Even if Ali Modu Sheriff is contesting as president in 2019, I won’t support him. I will oppose him because he wanted to be chairman of the party.
“We must have principle. This is cheap blackmail. It is to give a wrong impression about me. I am the most senior governor in this country. If I am in APC, they will celebrate me. I still have two and a half years to serve as governor. If anybody is arranging me for that, tell them that they should not arrange me.”
