TheCable

Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, has described members of the splinter group of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as miscreants who should be “arrested and detained”.

Earlier on Wednesday, a group led by one Emmanuel Obi-Nwosu, opened its own national secretariat in the Asokoro area of Abuja.

At its inaugural press briefing, the group described the PDP national convention as a sham, vowing to do everything within its powers to reclaim the leadership of the party.

Obi-Nwosu, who contested the national youth leader position and lost, claimed that ‎the process of selecting the current national working committee (NWC) was concluded days before the convention.

He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) all other relevant authorities ‎to disregard the “purported” election of the NWC.

“Most tragically, there was no election on that day; but a selection of predetermined persons who were eventually announced as new NWC members,” he had said.

Reacting, Fayose said it was clear that the enemies of the PDP were at work.

He said the party would never go back to the era of Ali Modu Sheriff, former factional chairman of the PDP, who fuelled the crisis in the party.

The governor, who is chairman of PDP governors, appealed to Nigerians to ignore the “jobless miscreants”.

They are simply charlatans. I won’t be surprised and we are doing investigations to know those who are behind them,” he said.

“In a society like Nigeria, where we need a virile opposition, we need to continually put the government of the day on its toes for them to know that Nigeria is greater than all of us.

“Some miscreants would just make press statement and say they are splinter group or whatever they call themselves. In a proper democracy, they are supposed to have been arrested and detained for breaching the peace of the society as their action is unwarranted and uncalled for.

“But we are not going to celebrate such by making an issue out of it. Nigeria needs peace at all times. We are not going to go back to the days of Sheriff and co, by giving attention to those persons making noise all over the place. This party will remain focused and move on.

“I urge Nigerians to ignore them. When I saw them on the Internet, they were faceless people I cannot recognise so they remain a set of jobless miscreants.”