Senator Buruji Kashamu dismisses chances of PDP fielding Atiku/Fayose ticket next year

OGUN East Senatorial District's Senator Buruji Kashamu has written off the prospect of a 2019 presidential ticket made up of former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose saying they are unelectable.

 

Senator Kashamu, who is wanted in the US on drug trafficking charges, is a leading member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which both Alhaji Atiku and Governor Fayose belong to. About a year ago, Governor Fayose declared his intention to seek the PDP's presidential ticket but was visited by Alhaji Atiku, who had for long nursed the ambition of becoming president himself.

 

It was believed that Atiku might have struck a deal with Governor Fayose and persuaded him to be his running mate for the 2019 presidential poll. However, Senator Kashamu berated Governor Fayose for positioning himself as a vice-presidential candidate, saying that no reasonable person would pick the governor, whom he described as cantankerous, as a running mate.

 

Senator Kashamu said: “He is going nowhere. In fact, no reasonable presidential candidate will pick a cantankerous and inordinately ambitious person as his running mate.

 

“Any presidential candidate who picks Fayose as his running mate endangers his life should he win. Since he fraudulently took control of the party structure in the southwest, what has he been able to do with it? Nothing."

 

According to the senator, Governor Fayose is fighting the political battle of his life to install another of his stooge as his successor, in the face of stiff opposition from within. He added that in a couple of months, the forthcoming Ekiti governorship election would put a lie to the governor's claim of invincibility and uncultured disturbance of the political space.

 

However, Governor  Fayose said he would not take issue with Senator Kashamu He added: “He is free to run his mouth, we won’t take issue with him.”

 

Meanwhile, Senator Kashamu expressed his delight at the Prince Uche Secondus leadership of the PDP which, he said, had not allowed the scheme allegedly orchestrated by Governor Fayose to suspend or expel him from the party to sail through. He also said President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election was in the hands of no one but the electorate.

 

Senator Kashamu said those who called on the president not to seek re-election were merely exercising their freedom of expression. According to him, President Buhari has done enough to earn himself a second term in office.

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