The Governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose, has made some revelations about the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to him, “Obasanjo used me to wreck the presidential ambition of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the chance of former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi, of becoming the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in 2007.
He said that Obasanjo also used him to attack former Abia State Governor, Orji Kalu, among other political foes.
In the current edition of The Interview, Fayose said he understood his folly when he embarked on a trip with Obasanjo to Tripoli, Libya, where Obasanjo had gone to ask Muammar Ghaddafi to support his Third Term bid, saying the former Libyan president treated Obasanjo like a serf.
He said, “It was such a pathetic scenario, so shameful. Obasanjo was speaking rapidly like a parrot. I was shocked beyond words. I never knew Obasanjo would be that humble.
“He was on one knee until the end of the conversation. Ghadaffi kept quiet and was just watching Obasanjo. When Obasanjo stopped rambling, Ghadaffi said, ‘Have you finished? Just know that I will not attend that meeting. I have other engagements.”
He also revealed how on two major occasions when he went to visit Atiku at the height of Obasanjo’s Third Term bid, security details promptly reported him to the former president, even before he left the venue, leaving him feeling spooky and vulnerable.
On the Obasanjo-Atiku saga, Fayose said, “Obasanjo told me that when you capture a general and you don’t kill him, he’ll come back and kill you; that since Atiku tried to stop him and failed, he must pay for it. And he (Atiku) is still paying for it.”
Fayose said he knew, as an insider at the time, that Obasanjo betrayed former Liberian President, Charles Taylor to induce U.S. support for this Third Term bid, after promising Taylor safe haven in Nigeria.
He revealed how Ahmed Makarfiwas sidelined in favour of a sick and stubbornly reluctant Umaru Yar’Adua and his role in it as chairman of the Presidential Selection Committee.
Fayose warned Kalu against “selling” the Igbo down the river “for cheap politics” and blamed President Muhammadu Buhari’s government for making IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu popular.
